| Summary: | 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.
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