Abstract
One of the most crucial decisions that students make in their lives is the major choice as it affects students’ job opportunities and the labor market’s structure. Many adolescents, who will one day meet the need of knowledge-based economies, have the goal of attending a university but lack the means to do so. In order to do this, it is necessary for adolescents to make the choices necessary to pick a certain line of work, employment, or organization to join. In the UAE, higher education has seen steady growth. However, the factors influencing students’ choice of higher education major remains unexplored. In this study, we conducted a survey with first and second-year undergraduate students in the UAE to understand the personal, social, and financial factors influencing students’ major choice. The study shows that personal factors such as passion and skills influence students’ choice. Implications and future work are discussed. It is observed that students appreciate working in several industries and across many societal sectors. The study also shows little correlation between bachelor's degrees and job profiles. We recommend that universities and employers should provide K–12 students, their families, and K–12 educators with correct information regarding bachelor's degrees to combat misperceptions about engineering work and its practitioners and to prepare them to navigate their education and join the workforce as employers increasingly expect graduates to have experience and skills such as creativity and design, oral and written communication, teamwork and leadership, interdisciplinary thinking, business management and entrepreneurship, and multicultural understanding.
Author Information
Mohammad Amin Kuhail, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Haseena Al Katheeri, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Joao Negreiros, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Paper Information
Conference: PCE2023
Stream: Higher education
This paper is part of the PCE2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Kuhail M., Katheeri H., & Negreiros J. (2023) UAE Female K-12 Students: Decision Influences on Bachelor’s Degrees Choices ISSN: 2758-0962 The Paris Conference on Education 2023: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0962.2023.34
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0962.2023.34
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