Research context Nowadays, when approaching the university lecture hall, the young in general, and students at universities in Ho Chi Minh city, have a tendency to select "hot" and "repu
Research problem statemeri .- + 5 1 22122122212 121 1551151111 111111 1112 ree 10
These are some of the research questions that we used for the research paper e What aspects of the major are appropriate for you? e What aspects of the major are inappropriate for you? ° Reason to pursue the major
From the above questions, we can find out the factors affecting the decision of students in economics to choose a proper major We can assess which aspects have the most influence on students’ major choice in order to provide the best advice and minimize the rate of students making the unsuitable choice That is also the reason why we decided to choose the topic for the project “Factors affecting major choice of students in economics in Ho Chi Minh City.”
1.3 Research objectives e To know what factors affects students’ major choice ° To have a general view about students’ making décision ° To understand students’ attitude towards to their major
This study was carried out with an emphasis on students of economics majors and is also one of the options to assist the following generation of students in making an appropriate decision for their major.
Research scope and obJ€ct - c 121112112 2211211 5511581 1511111 11111112 lãi
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Factors related to the selection a major and the1r Iimportance
THEORETICAL BASIS, PREVIOUS RESEARCH RESULTS AND RESEARCH
2.1.1 The concept of majors of study
The major is a set of professional knowledge and skills of a certain field of professional or scientific activity that you learn Which will give you a background in a certain field The amount of knowledge of the major is often very vast and extensive Choosing the main profession is to determine for yourself the field of labor that suits the capacity and interests to create success in their field of industry
2.1.2 The concept of orientation to choose a major of study
Career orientation is a comprehensive educational concept and is constantly updated to provide individuals with information and experience, in order to help students prepare well for future job choices It plays an important role in the process of career development and success of each individual In addition, being properly oriented to the field of study helps young people inspire and avoid following trends or choosing a career that is not suitable for you, leading to having to work in the wrong profession or even unemployment
2.1.3 Factors related to the selection a major and their importance
The subjectivity of the field selection process: The selection process takes place under the influence of complex social relationships (between students and families; class collectives, communities ) These relationships affect perceptions, needs, motivations, interest, career interests of students However, to decide on the choice of major, most of it is a decision made and affirmed by the subject himself.
The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) suggests that intention is the main motivator of a person's behavior and that this intention is influenced by 2 determinants: their attitude toward the behavior and subjective norms
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was actually developed from the Theory of Reasoned Action, which implies that this updated theory also explains individual behavior as resulting from intentions However, the theory predicates on 3 core complements: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control
The importance of the major selection process: First of all, it is crucial to bear in mind that the major chosen in college is directly linked to the opportunity of a future career and has an impact on future life Picking a major which is suitable to one’s personality and capability helps the student comprehend the knowledge better and hone their skills Therefore, working becomes enjoyable Although all career paths are stressful and demand a great deal of effort, doing the dream job is much more comfortable since the students have passion and motivation to accomplish their duty On the other hand, majoring in an unwanted profession causes the learners a lot of frustration and tiredness They are less likely to graduate on time and more likely to drop out as the coursework does not arouse their mterest and consequently, the students carry out ternble performance.
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Data Approach c1 1211211121111 1111101120112 11 151121111111 511 11101111111 rớt 17
The quantitative research method is used to explore the problem With thorough survey statistics data “ KHAO SAT CAC YEU TO ANH HUONG DEN LUA CHON NGANH HOC CUA SINH VIEN KHOI NGANH KINH TE TAI TRHCM” e Name of subject: “SURVEY ON FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT CHOICE
IN THE ECONOMIC SECTOR IN HO CHI MINH CITY” e Year: 2023 e Number of surveys: 200 alumni e Data collection subjects (Survey subjects): Students (economic sector) who are studying at universities in Ho Chi Minh City e Age: from year | to year 4 e Gender: Randomly surveyed including both men and women.
10 How to investigate: fill out the online survey form
Variable name | Definition Scales of Source measurement
Gender Male/Female Nominal Survey:
SURVEY ON University The name of the university | Nominal FACTORS that the survey respondents AFFECTING are enrolled in STUDENT CHOICE
Years Year of study: Ordinal SECTOR IN HO CHI
Freshman/Sophomore/Junio MINH CITY
Decision These are objective and Interval affect subjective factors to make the survey participants’ choice
Advice Give advice to younger Nominal people to choose the same industry
Perspectives | Assessment of learning Interval on learning attitude when choosing a attitudes career whether it is suitable or not
Majors A major is a specific area of | Nominal Writers, Staff n.d study in which a student chooses to specialize
Suitable Acceptable or nght for Nominal Cambridge Dictionary someone or something
Consequences | A result of something that Interval Oxford Dictionary has happened, especially an unpleasant result,specifically here are the consequences of choosing the wrong industry
Confidence and vaÌIdity - - c 211221122122 1222112111511 1 111112115 118tr nh 20
e Evaluation of the elements that influence students’ decision to major in economics in order to gain more insight into their ideas and behavior and minimize the rate at which they leave the field or switch to an undesirable major ° Understanding which elements will most affect economics students’ major choices might favorably influence and spread to students in the process of picking a job for the future e Using the characteristics picked by economics students, identifying these elements gathered through a survey tool will aid in spreading information for high school students (who desire to major in economics)
The quantitative research method is used to explore the problem With thorough survey statistics data “ KHAO SAT CAC YEU TO ANH HUONG DEN LUA CHON NGANH HOC CUA SINH VIEN KHOI NGANH KINH TE TAI TRHCM” e Name of subject: “SURVEY ON FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT CHOICE
IN THE ECONOMIC SECTOR IN HO CHI MINH CITY” e Year: 2023 e Number of surveys: 200 alumni e Data collection subjects (Survey subjects): Students (economic sector) who are studying at universities in Ho Chi Minh City e Age: from year | to year 4 e Gender: Randomly surveyed including both men and women.
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Academic background .- - 1S 121112111 1122111211511 581511111111 24 4.1.4 Do you ủnd your maJjor su1ftable for yourseẽf? .- c cccccc sex sesese2 25 4.1.5 Factors in choosIng THI4]OT .- c2 2122121212151 121 1151111111111 re 26 4.1.6 Attitude o£the sfudents tt tt H1 1 11 HH ê 28 4.1.7 Major recommmendafion - - -‹ - c 222222121212 151 1511121111111 111211228 1e 31
Graph 3 : The chart shows the percentage of survey respondents studying in which year at university
WHICH YEARS STUDENTS ARE IN
Besides, most of the survey participants are first-year students (49%), second-year students (23%), third-year students (22%), and fourth-year students (6%) respectively It can be seen from the survey data that most freshmen pay a lot of attention to the factors of choosing a major and their impact from a very early age
Which year students are in Number Rate in sample
19 4.1.4 Do you find your major suitable for yourself?
Graph 4: The number of students in each major who agree that their current disciplines suit them
Whether the major is suitable with students? nswer "YES"
41 Logistics and Supply Chain Mana
Trading business Economics Investment International Economics Economics Investment Software Engineering
Out of the “Agree” responses we received, students of International Business discipline took up the largest portion of the graph (23,3%) The second largest group was that of the students whose major does not relate to Economics with the amount of 13,7% The graph also comprised 11% of learners from the faculty of Business Administration who think their current discipline suits themselves Coming in fourth place was the Logistics and Supply Chain Management faculty contributing 7,5% of the chart
Graph 5: The number of students in each major who think that their current disciplines do not suit them.
Whether the major is suitable with students?
Logistics and Supply Chain Mana
When asked about whether the major is suitable for the student or not We received a large number of respondents who answered “no" and felt discouraged when choosing the wrong major The majority consists of 11,1% students from majors Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and Finance- Banking Followed by are the students pursuing those majors Audit- Accounting, Marketing, International Business, Business Administration, both make up 9,3% In general, the majors that many students feel are not suitable as mentioned above are all attractive majors, with high entry points, along with many potential job opportunities However, choosing a career according to income, and trends has made the major you study an invisible barrier, feeling uninterested in this anymore.
Graph 6; The graph illustrating the factors that influence a student's decision in choosing their major FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS 'MAJOR CHOICE
Friends and family are engaged in this industry
You select your major in accordance with your parents' wishes
Your major is in a prestigious university
Your chosen field provides you with clear guidance for your future career
You can afford the tuition fee
Your score is sufficient to enroll in the field
You are really keen on this industry
Sufficient field provides selection in | Friends and Keen on] score to |Tuition fee|clear guidance accordance | family are the | enroll in is for future [Prestigious] with parents'| engaged in industry | the field |affordable career university wishes this industry
It is noticeable that the most dominant reason for the students’ major decision is whether their results in the entrance exam meet the requirement of the course, since 137 of participants have a high level of agreement with this notion, equivalent to a score of 4-5 Financial factors and the prestige of the targeted university are the next two aspects students take into consideration while selecting a profession, with a number of 130 and
127 students rating these factors as important respectively Influence from friends and family is the least affecting element with the lowest level of concurrence Only 66 answers corresponded to the idea that they followed the crowd to select the major and 62 respondents said that they pursued the discipline in accordance with their parents’ wishes The number is relatively moderate compared to the record in other factors Also, these
23 two elements got the most responses of disagreement, showing that they are not regarded as crucial
Graph 7: The chart showing the attitude of the students who think they made the right major decision
ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS ANSWERING THE FIELD IS SUITABLE WITH THEM
No longer interested in learning (want to experience to earn money)
Regularly attend workshops/seminars related to the field of study
You have tried your best but your capacity is limited
You fee! overwhelmed with the dense deadline of the urse
You feel tired of your study schedule
You're just trying to get enough marks to pass the course
You feel pressure in the process of acquiring knowledge
@ Extremely disagree MM Disagree Neutrality ™ Agree m Extremely agree
You're just You feel You have You feel | trying to | You feel joverwhelmed] tried your No longer pressure in |get enough] tired of |} with the best but | Regularly attend | interested in the process} marks to | your dense your |workshops/semm | learning (want to of acqurring| pass the | study | deadline of | capacity is | ars related to the |experience to earn knowledge} course |schedule] the course limited field of study money)
When surveying a group of students interested in their current major, 29 students strongly disagreed, and 35 students disagreed with the idea “No longer interested in learning”, equivalent to level 1-2 according to the perception scale from 1-5 This is understandable because they have prepared to find out information related to their major, thereby reducing the risk of choosing the wrong major or not being motivated to study Besides, the attitudes "You feel overwhelmed with the dense deadline of the course” and
"Regularly attend workshops/seminars related to the field of study” also received a lot of votes for agree and extremely agree - equivalent to a level of 4-5 on the scale The respondents feel that the major is suitable for them, therefore they do not seem to feel as much pressure in studying as other students, and it creates the motivation to participate in many extracurricular activities related to their major
Graph 8: The chart showing the attitude of the students who dislike their major
ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS ANSWERING THE FIELD IS NOT SUITABLE WITH THEM
No longer interested in learning (want to experience to earn money)
Regularly attend workshops/seminars related to the field of study
You have tried your best but your capacity is limited
You feel overwhelmed with the dense deadline of the course
You feel tired of your study xin 4s
You're just trying to get enough marks to pass the course
You feel pressure in the process of acquiring knowledge
@ Extremely disagree ™ Disagree Neutrality M™ Agree ™ Extremely agree
You have Regularly No longer
Feel pressure Feel tried your attend interested in in the Only try to overwhelmed | best but |workshops/se | learning process of | get enough | Feel tired |with the dense your |minarsrelated| (want to acquiring |marks to passlof the study|deadline of the] capacity is |to the field of lexperience to knowledge | the course | schedule course limited study eam money)
Examining the group of students who dislike their current major, 30 of whom are under the pressure of acquiring knowledge Feeling tired of the study schedule is also a concern to many people as 29 subjects chose that they were struggling to keep up with the bustling academic life Both “Being overwhelmed with deadlines/heavy workload” and
“Reluctantly keeping the minimum passing grade” options got 25 answers for each, which is understandable given the fact that the students do not find themselves fit in their current course It also explains the massive amount of disapproving opinions in attending major-related workshops and the little amount of people choosing otherwise
Graph 9: The chart shows the percentage of respondents who would like to introduce their major to other
According to the survey results, there are 59,5 % of respondents who will recommend their major to others, while the remaining 40,5 % respondents choose not to recommend The high proportion of votes for the recommendation means that the learners are extremely satisfied with the major, they know the necessary information related to the major before studying However the percentage between recommendation and not recommendation is almost equally high There are still many learners who realize that they have chosen the wrong major, feel that the major is different from their own expectations, so they do not want to counsel it to others.
Statistics Inference
4.2.1 How much difference in severity of consequences between male and female students feel
The maximum level of severity of each consequence in below tables is 5 The survey sample included 83 male and 117 female students From these below tables, hypothesized with 95% confidence, is there a difference in assessing the severity of each consequence in choosing the wrong industry?
For the consequence “Waste of time”, we have:
Mean severity as assessed by male students:
Mean severity as assessed by female students:
Initially, we compute an interval estimate with 95% confidence for the overall mean difference in severity perceived by male and female students for each outcome Sample
29 data shows us that n,, x= 3.98, s,=.896 for the male and n,7, x, 3.74, s,=.939 for the female
We calculate degrees of freedom for t,, as follow:
We round down to degrees of freedom to 182 in order to have the greater value of t and estimate a more conservative interval We use the distribution table of t with the degrees of freedom equaling 182, we find that tạp s= figa,oas—1.96
Interval estimate with 95% confidence for the difference in mean severity perceived by male and female students are as follows:
The score estimate of the overall mean difference in severity perceived by male and female students is 0.24 with margin error 0.26 and interval estimate with 95% confidence from -0.02 to 0.5
Let u and H; be the mean severity perceived by male and female students
According to the problem, we have the following hypothesis test:
30 Hạ: uw ¡My = 0: there is no difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students
H,: MHF 0: there is a difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students
We use the level of significance a = 0.05
According to the above calculation, we have:
We can’t reject Hy because (-.02;.5) contains 0 so that with 95% confidence, there is a little difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students but at a rare level Maybe the male sometimes considers the (1) outcome more serious than the female but the female sometimes considers it more serious than the male
Consequence Level (x) The amount of students
Consequence Level The amount of students
Consequence Level The amount of students
Consequence Level The amount of students
Consequence Level The amount of students
Similar to the (1) outcome, we can conclude the next four outcome as follows:
For the (2) outcome, WH, =(-0.02;0.52), we can’t reject Hy because (-.02;.5) contains 0 so that with 95% confidence, there is a little difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students but at a rare level Maybe the male sometimes considers the (2) outcome more serious than the female but the female sometimes considers it more serious than the male
For the (3) outcome, we can’t reject Hy because (-.21; 33) contains 0 so that with 95% confidence, there is a little difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students but at a rare level Maybe the male sometimes considers the (3) outcome more serious than the female but the female sometimes considers it more serious than the male
35 For the (4) outcome, we can’t reject Hy because (-.11; 39) contains 0 so that with 95% confidence, there is a little difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students but at a rare level Maybe the male sometimes considers the (4) outcome more serious than the female but the female sometimes considers it more serious than the male
For the (5) outcome, we can’t reject Hy because (-.27;.29) contains 0 so that with 95% confidence, there is a little difference between the mean severity perceived by male and female students but at a rare level Maybe the male sometimes considers the (4) outcome more serious than the female but the female sometimes considers it more serious than the male.
Choosing a major is one of the most important decisions a student will make during their university years It can have a significant impact on their academic success, career opportunities, and overall satisfaction with their university experience However, as the survey results show, this decision can be challenging and complex for many students
In conclusion, the survey results provide valuable insights into the factors that influence students’ decisions when choosing a major and their overall satisfaction with their chosen field of study Of the 200 respondents, 59% were female and 41% were male This gender distribution is a crucial factor to consider when analyzing the survey results as gender can play a significant role in shaping career aspirations and decision-making Furthermore, 46% of the respondents came from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, making it the most represented institution in the survey This finding could indicate that students from this university are more interested in sharing their opinions about their majors than students from other universities
The survey results also revealed that most students pay close attention to factors that influence their choice of major, such as whether their entrance exam results meet the course requirements, financial factors, and the prestige of the university Specifically, 137 students agreed that their entrance exam results were the most important factor in their choice of major Additionally, 130 students agreed that financial factors were significant, while 127 students agreed that the prestige of the university played a crucial role in their decision-making Influence from friends and family was the least important factor, with only 66 students agreeing that they followed the crowd to select their major, and 62 respondents stating that they pursued their discipline in accordance with their parents’ wishes.
37 However, while these factors are essential, it is equally important for students to consider their interests, passions, and potential career paths when selecting a major The survey results indicate that many students chose majors that did not suit their interests or expectations For example, when asked whether their major was suitable for them, 11% of students disagreed, with most of them pursuing majors in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Finance-Banking These majors are traditionally considered attractive, with high entry requirements and potential job opportunities However, choosing a major solely based on these factors can lead to dissatisfaction and academic struggles
Moreover, academic struggles were a common concern among students who felt that they had chosen the wrong major For instance, 29 students reported struggling to keep up with the academic schedule, while 25 students reported feeling overwhelmed with deadlines and workload These findings suggest that choosing a major that does not align with one's interests and passions can lead to academic struggles, which, in turn, can affect students’ overall satisfaction with their university experience
When asked about their satisfaction with their current major, 29 students strongly disagreed and 35 students disagreed with the idea of "no longer interested in learning.” On the other hand, 59% of respondents said they would recommend their major to others, indicating high satisfaction levels However, it is worth noting that the percentage of students who chose not to recommend their major was almost equally high, highlighting the prevalence of dissatisfaction among Vietnamese undergraduate students with their chosen majors
In conclusion, the survey results show that choosing a major is a complex decision that requires students to consider a range of factors, including their interests, passions, potential career paths, and relevant information about the major While factors such as entrance exam results, financial considerations, and the prestige of the university are essential, students should also consider their own interests and passions when selecting a major Universities should provide students with resources and support, such as academic
38 advising and major-related workshops, to help them make informed decisions and succeed in their academic pursuits Ultimately, choosing a major that aligns with one's interests and passions can lead to academic success and overall satisfaction with the university experience