Factors influencing choice of study disciplines

Abstract

Several studies have identified various factors influencing the career choices of

students from the 4 professional disciplines of Accountancy, Medicine, Law and

Engineering. One of these is Leong & Sng (1989) which was done on local

students in 1989.

The focus of this study is twofold: firstly, to analyse the reasons underlying an

undergraduate's selection of his discipline from the 4 professional study

programmes available; and secondly, to compare the results obtained currently

with those by Leong & Sng ( 1989) to further investigate if there are any

changes in influence.

A total of 446 Accountancy, 451 Engineering, 86 Law and 58 Medicine first year

undergraduates' responses were used in our analyses. A similar survey was

administered to third-year Accountancy undergraduates. Data was collected

through questionnaires distributed at the end of lectures for the various faculties.

Only students who choose their course as their first preference were considered.

The Test-of-Hypothesis was carried out on these data. The findings revealed

that all students are generally concerned with the availability of employment,

future earning potential, job satisfaction that may be obtained and aptitude for

the subject matter in their selection of their course of study. Majority of them

made their choices after completing their pre-university education, with the

exception of medical students. We also found that there are no significant

changes in influence in the current batch of students' choice as compared to

those in 1989.