Factors Correlating with Decision-Making on Pursuing a Master’s Degree Among Undergraduate Students Studying Social Science at Burapha University

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to examine decision-making on pursuing a master’s degree among undergraduate students studying at Burapha University and to investigate factors influencing these students’ decision-making on pursuing a master’s degree. The subjects participating in this study were 370 undergraduate students who were studyingin their 4^th year at Burapha University in social sciences program in the academic year of 2015. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire. The statistical tests used to analyze the collected data included frequency, percentage, means, and standard deviation. To test the research hypotheses, the test of Chi-Square was administered.

            The results of this study revealed that 79.19% of the students wanted to further their studies. Among these students, they were likely to pursue a master’s degree after getting a job and in two years after earning a bachelor’s degree. The main reason for them to pursue a master’s degree was that they wanted to have a job advancement, followed by earning a higher level of education and gaining more knowledge. Regarding their interest, the subjects wanted to further their studies in a master’s degree of business administration program, followed by studying in public administration program on week-ends during 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. They reported that they could afford 50,000-100,000 baht for their studies. In addition, more than half of these students expressed their interest in pursuing their studies at Burapha University. They rated their opinion toward the image of Burapha University at a good level. Furthermore, based on the results from the test of hypotheses, it was shown that there were relationships between the students’ needs to further their studies and the variables relating to their faculty, learning achievement, additional job, and extra income at a significant level of 0.05. Finally, no statistically significant relationships were found between the students’ needs to pursue their studies and the variables relating to their gender, background, current accommodation, average monthly income, parents’ average monthly income, father’s and mother’s occupation and highest level of education and main guardians.