The effect of socio-economic background and campus experience on students' career aspirations : an empirical study at Wuhan university of technology

Abstract

Career aspirations reflect the individual social desires. This study aims to discover the influence of socio-economic background and campus experience on students’ career aspirations, by addressing the following research questions: what are the aspirations among the students toward future career? Does students’ socio-economic background affect their aspirations regarding future employment? And does students’ experience on campus affect their aspirations regarding future employment? A quantitative research strategy was employed throughout the empirical study. A questionnaire survey was conducted among a group of 150 undergraduate students at Wuhan University of Technology. The collected data were then analyzed using statistical techniques.

The study found that both socio-economic background and campus experience are influential in shaping students’ career aspirations. Students from better-off socio-economic backgrounds, whose parents have higher educational attainment, higher occupational status and higher income, tend to have higher aspirations towards their future career. Students who focus more on academic study and are more satisfied with their campus environment and available academic resources also tend to have higher career aspirations. Significant predictors of career aspirations were also found in this study. Mother’s educational attainment and occupation turn out to be the most important variables in socio-economic background, predicting both students’ desired occupation and salary. Students’ time spent studying and their degree of satisfaction with academic resources are essential campus experience variables, predicting both students’ desired occupation and salary.