The Factors that Students Consider in University and Department Selection: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Kocaeli University, Faculty of Education Students

摘要

People spend the majority of their lifetime having a good career with the aim of a high quality life. Universities have an enormous influence in determining individuals’ quality of life and careers. Although universities are not institutions which have the obligation to be vocationally oriented, students view universities as vocational institutions which lead to employment. Therefore, students choose among a variety of universities in order to reach the jobs in their vision. The aim of this study is to determine the factors students consider when choosing a university. The study was conducted by means of survey method aided by qualitative and quantitative research models. The sample comprised 290 students selected by stratified random sampling out of 535 freshman year students enrolled in 7 different programs at Kocaeli University, Faculty of Education in fall 2011. Questionnaires and interview forms were employed as data collection instruments. The collected qualitative data will be analyzed via content analysis; as for the quantitative data, they were evaluated by means of arithmetic mean. The results point out that students make a serious amount of research on their own as well as with their family and teachers’ help when choosing university and department. The foremost reason why teacher candidates choose their profession is that they love teaching, their ?SYS (university entrance exam) score is sufficient for teaching and that teaching graduates have little difficulty finding employment. Another finding is that students consider factors apart from the ?SYS score when selecting department and universities. In general, the factor that influences students most in department and university selection is the physical conditions of the university. This is followed by the city where the university is located, the university's socio-cultural facilities and the informal information, rumors, and stories about the university.