A report on the choice of undergraduate major and plans after graduation among students of ISVNU

This report was to study on the reasons behind students’ choice of their current academic major and their career goals. The investigation was done by using questionaire and data analysis with reference from online journal articals and a deep interview. The main findings were that among the four majors which were surveyed, International Bussiness (53%) and Accounting, Analyzing and Auditing (34%) were the two that hold the majority. Together with many factors that affected students’ choice of academic major, description on their career goals was brought along to have better understanding in the students’ decision. It was concluded that the job opportunities had a great influence on the students’ decision in academic major and the highest selection of after graduation plans were to apply for a job that relevance to what students were trained and to continue study higher education. The recommendations are that faculty and academic advisors should organize more and more vocational guidance workshops so as for the students to have better understanding in the school’s courses. Along with that, parents should listen to their children’s aspiration and then give advices to support them on their career path.

A report on the choice of undergraduate major and plans aftergraduation among students of IS-VNU

Prepared by: Nguyễn Quỳnh NgaA student from: IB2017A

Prepared for: Assignment – English for Academic Purposes 2

April 2, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I Data Collection 6

II Data Analysis 7

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14

BIBLIOGRAPHY 24

It was concluded that the job opportunities had a great influence on the students’ decision inacademic major and the highest selection of after graduation plans were to apply for a job thatrelevance to what students were trained and to continue study higher education.

The recommendations are that faculty and academic advisors should organize more and morevocational guidance workshops so as for the students to have better understanding in the school’scourses Along with that, parents should listen to their children’s aspiration and then give advicesto support them on their career path.

1 Purpose

The purpose of this report is to investigate the reasons behind the sudent’s choice ofundergraduate major and their plans after graduation This report will also giverecommendation on what should be done by the faculty and students’ family to ensure anoptimal academic major choice that influence the students’ future career.

2 Background

For years, understanding the reasons for students’ decision in their education and careergoals has always been a subject that faculty and academic advisors concern A recentstudy shows that major choice is overseen by parents’ guidance and the degree to whichstudents’ are free to follow those influences (Ian Madfes, Ph.D., 2017) A similar study inVietnam shows that the most influencing factors on students’ choice of major is theopportunity to study aboard, to study in an English-speaking environment, to study withforeign lecturer and to have high job opportunity (Phan Thi Thanh Thuy, Nguyen ThiMinh Hoa, 2017).

The report was an assignment written for subject English for Academic Purpose 2 byNguyen Quynh Nga on April 2, 2018.

3 Scope

The report examines 100 random freshman students (K16) of International School ofVietnam National University Besides respondents’ profiles, this report looks into thereasons behind students’ major choice and future plans It does not examine students inthe Sophomore, Junior or Senior years due to the lack of time and the extension of thenumber of students in such case.

200 questionaires were printed but only 102 of them were delivered to the participants onMarch 14th, 2018 It took the participants about 10 minutes to finish their surveys Rightafter that, 102 questionnaires were collected by the researcher 2 of them were faultywhich left 100 adequate ones to be analyzed Microsoft Exel 2016 was used to analyze thedata.

2.Interviews

One randomly picked students from K16 of IS-VNU were entered in a deep interview onMarch 15th, 2018 A few questions were asked to learn more about the students’ thoughtsin his satisfaction of the choice that he had made and his goals up to then.

II Data Analysis

1 Questionnaires

1.1 Student’s choice of major

Among 100 students taking part in the survey, the majority was female (71%) where only21% of them was male.

Where there were students from 4 majors was surveyed, the following pie chart showedthe division of these participants in their college major in International School – VienamNational University.

This result can be easy to explain Vietnam is a developing country which have been onits way to international intergration by joining in many economic partnerships in the

region and over the world such as ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations),APEC (Asia - Pacific Economic Cooperation), WTO (World Trade Organization), etc.With market opening policy, Vietnam have been receiving a lot of investments fromforeign countries at the same time having many investors that have the courage to investin foreign countries This led to the need of the college’s international bussiness skills.Therefore, IB is such major which brings students plenty of job oppotunites along with itsvariaty in professional field (“Why should we choose International Bussiness?”, 2017).Along with IB, AC stood the second in the major field It cannot be denied thataccounting is an indispensable in every single company or organization A recent study ofNavigos Group shows that finacial accounting ranked third among the five functionaldepartments with the highest recruitment needs (“Accouting major in the future – It is noteasy to select which school to study”, n.d.) Hence, the demand for human resources inaccounting is extremely high This explain why IB and AC seize the mainstream of thestudent’s choice of major.

On the other hand, Management Information Systems (MIS) and Science of Managing(ICE) have not been the choice of many students On the author’s point of view andknowledge, MIS and ICE are those that demands lots of skills considering computing,programming, logical and critical thinking The interest in this area is necessery forstudents who have the will to follow these operose majors As the result, MIS and ICEhold the minority students of the 4 majors.

1.2 The time students decide on choosing their major

The time students decide on choosing their majors

Before upper secondary schoolGrade 10

It can be seen from the chart that most student made their choice when they were at grade12 In the author’s opinion, grade 12 may be the time when some students are matureenough to make up their mind on how they would want their life to be Ana Contreras’sstudy (cited in Milson, 2015) found that “Previous research suggests that college majorselection may relate to career path, based on skills and interests” Along with that, themoment when the university entrance exam is close, a lot of factors inluence the studentselection The next part will bring a closer look at the consideration of the students alongwith some matters of what affected the students’ choice of major.

1.3 Students’ agreement on factors affecting their choice of major

6 Back-up choice in applying for university5 Getting interest in the school after the Admissions Consultation Day4 Following family's advices 3 Suitability with student's hobbies2 Suitability with student's abilities1 Future job opportunities

Factors affecting students on their choice of major

Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagreeStrongly Disagree

According to the clustered bar chart, it can easily be seen that future job oppotuninies andstudent’s own abilities along with hobbies seize to be the highest factors of all (The Agreeand Strongly Agree bars are incredibly long) In the intergration period, the fact that the 4majors, especially IB and AC, have great job opportunities and chances for graduatestudents to grasp is undeniable Another important factor is the satisfaction of student intheir undergraduate major A student’s abilities and hobbies come a lot from his (or her)personality Although there are multiple factors which influence the decision, personalityis disctinct due to the “pervasiveness” of it and the stablity through the changes ofexternal factors (Piedmond, 1998)

Following those threes factors, back-up choice in university seems to be the one thatmany students studying in IS-VNU concern about The issue is easy to explain IS-VNUis a school which have English training program for student from freshman by professinalVietnamese and foreign lecturers along with planty of activities and speeches from manyfamous lecturers, etc As a result, the tuition is very high Comparing with the similartraining sector from other University, VNU-IS is still a young institution which makeother University’s International Faculty seems to be a better choice due to their history ofteaching Since that is the case, many students chose VNU-IS as their back up choice.

Among all of the above, the Admissions Consultation Day had a big influence on thestudents’ interest The school was very succesful at gaining trust, curiosity and attentionfrom undergraduate students by providing many information about the school’s greattraining courses and many kinds of scholarship Hence, VNU-IS is effectively bringing itsname futher and futher.

One inevitable factor that affected the students’ choice of major for years is the pressurethat comes from parent’sconcerns about employability and earnings (Discover FinancialServices, 2012; Schneider, 2012), which made the students choose majors in which theyhad little interest in at first (ACT, 2013) As the result, many adults later regreted theirinitial choice of undergraduate major due to the lack of realistic information concerningthe career paths related to those major so as to make the best decision (Andrew Pritchard,Julie Fudge, Elizabeth Crisp Crawford & Jeremy Jackson, 2018) Yet things have changedrecently In the era of information and technology, students can easily access to manysources online to earn themselves knowledge with tons of information in every kind ofaspects on Earth Hence, students these days have the chance to find out their own interestand abilities which would help them to make optimal decision in their choice of major.Though the factor that students’ selection of major is to follow their family’s advices had

declined (37% of which chose neutral where 23% of them had disagreement on the case),the number of students following their parents to choose their major is still high Wherethese figures are only a rough estimate from 100 freshman student of VNU-IS, theinfluence of family suggestion is still at a pretty high level (40% agreement which 4% ofthem strongly agree with it).

1.4 Student’s after graduation plans

OtherStill being uncertain with your career goalsContinue your study to Master degreeApply for any kinds of job just to avoid unemploymentApply for a job like your skill and your willApply for a job which is relevance to your training

Plans after graduation

In terms of students plans after graduation, most student reported that they want to applyfor a job which is relevance to their training that at the same time related to their skill andwill This is reasonable because the wish to have a job which applied many of the skillsone learned when he (or she) studied in University is rational Where many of therespondants chose to apply for a job right after their graduation, many chose to continuetheir study to higher education – Master’s degree Some of them chose to find a job andcontinue their study at the same time Futher more, 4 of the 100 participants shared theirwish to continue their Master’s degree abroad This result shows that many of VNU-IS

students have the desire to have better opportunities in finding a good job to have a brightfuture On the other hand, there was a minority of the students who were still beinguncertain about their career goals There are even 6 of the participants shared that theyonly needed to find a job just to avoid being unemployed The lack of confident inplanning career ability among these students might have result from their major choice atthe beginning Beside all of that, in a study of Students’ Attitudes, Beliefs and PlansRegarding Career Planning and Post College Life, it was shown that “students who hadtheir after graduation plan ealier usually have higher levels of self-efficacyand morepositive attitudes regarding the post-college career search.” (Dana Goetsch, Catey Jordan,Clara Jung, Liz Lampman, Sara Nobbs, Corbin Ruiz, 2010).

2 Interviews

Following the questionaire that had been done, Nguyen Quang Huy – a freshman studentstudying in VNU-IS was interview by the author When being asked about the satisfactionof the major he had chosen (which is International Bussiness), he freely shared that thiswas not what he expected to be “While my dream is to become an English teacher, Ifailed to have the high enough grade to enter ULIS (University of Languages andInternational Studies) Therefore, this is my back-up choice I chose to study IB in VNU-IS because I’d learnt that the course in this school is in English from the beginning Yet,studying economics is not my interest The truth is I have thought about doing theuniversity entrance exam again to be able to get in to the University in my dream But formy parents’ prevention, I am not allowed For all of the above I’ve just shared, I mustadmit that I’m still being quite uncertain about my career goals.”

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

If any conclusions may be drawn from this report, they are, perhaps, as follows: The mainreasons why students chose their major are, in fact, the job opportunities that such majors bringand the personality that had affected on the students’ hobbies and abilities After graduation, moststudents wished to apply for a job that revelance to their training and their will, while manyothers decided to study higher education.

From these conclusions, it is therefore recommended that: In order to recruit more student, thefaculty and academic should organize more and more vocational guidance workshop so as for thestudents to better understanding the school’s courses Such deed would reduce less hard thinkingon planning for career goals among undergraduation students Together with the faculty andacademic, family also plays an important role in students’ choice of major that affect their future.Instead of putting the students under pressure, parents should listen to their children’s aspirationand then give advices to support them on their career path.

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2118APPENDICES

Check (√) the box in which corresponds to your answer.

A Personal information

 Gender: 1 Male 2 Female Major:

1 International Bussiness (IB)

2 Accounting, Analyzing and Auditing (AC)3 Management Information Systems (MIS)4 (ICE)

5 Other:

B Questionaire

Question 1: When did you plan to choose your major?

Before upper-secondary school.Grade 10

Grade 11Grade 12Question 2:

Do you agree that the following factors have an influence on you in choosing yourmajor?

Strongly agree

Agree Neutral Disagree

Stronglydisagree1 Future job opportunities

2 Suitability with your abilities3 Suitability with your hobbies4 Following family’s advices 5 Getting interest in the school

after the AdmissionsConsultation Day

6 Back-up choice in applying foruniversity

Question 3: What is your plan after graduation?

Apply for a job which is relevance to your training.Apply for a job like your skill and your will.

Apply for any kinds of job just to avoid unemployment.Continue your study to Master degree.

Still being uncertain with your career goals.

Thank you for your cooporation!

APPENDIX 2: CODING INFORMATION FOR ANALYZINGa Gender:

1 Male2 Femaleb Major

1 IB2 AC3 MIS4 ICE5 OTHERc Ques1:

1 Before upper-secondary school2 Grade 10

3 Grade 114 Grade 12d Ques2:

1 Strongly agree2 Agree