Frontiers in Psychology (Nov 2014)
Why do different people choose different university degrees? Motivation and the choice of degree
Abstract
Different people choose which undergraduate degree to study at the university for different reasons. To date, there have been limited attempts to identify individual differences in motivation that drive the undergraduate degree choice. We identified that people choose university degrees for four reasons: career concerns (Career), intrinsic interest (Interest) in the subject, an opportunity to help others (Helping) and because they are looking for an easy option into higher education (Loafing). We investigated whether these motivation apply to the choice of undergraduate degree in two samples: (1) undergraduate (N = 989) and (2) prospective (N = 896) students. We developed the Motivations Influencing Course Choice (MICC) questionnaire to measure these motivations. Scales of Helping, Career, Loafing and Interest showed good psychometric properties, showed validity with respect to general life goals and personality traits, and predicted actual and prospective degree choices. We demonstrated that medical degrees were chosen due to a mixture of Helping and Career, while engineering degrees were associated with Career and low interest in the degree. The choice of art and humanities degrees was driven by Interest and low concern about future career, accompanied with high Loafing. We also demonstrated gender differences: females were high in Helping (both samples) and Interest (only in undergraduate sample) motivation, while males scored higher in Career (only in undergraduate sample) and Loafing (both samples). The findings can feed into both theoretical accounts of proximal motivation as well as help to improve degree programmes at universities and provide better career advice.
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