Choosing a vocation and a field of higher education: A comparison between two generations

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate five aspects ofthe problems experienced by young people in their approachto the choices of vocation and higher education institutionsby comparing two generations of graduates (1986 and 1960) .It was hypothesized that the 1960's graduates wouldhave (1) made their decisions on vocations and institutionsof higher education with higher level of information p (2)perceived more ability to control future vocation, (3)started decision making process in the early years of highschool` (4) perceived the university degree less as a predictorof success and (5) perceived less pressure from parents'on their choices of vocations than the 1986 graduates.To test these hypothesis two matched questionnaireswere constructed which were administered to the 1986 and1960 graduates of th.e faculties of Medicine, Law and CivilEngineering. The data were subjected to the descriptivestatistical analyses, Analyses of variance and MultipleRegressi?n Analyses. While the first three hypotheses weresupported at highly significant levels, the fourth hypothesiswas rejected and the fifth, hypothesis was partially suported.