Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations : Why Do Students Switch Majors in German Higher Education?

Meyer, Jasmin; Leuze, Kathrin; Strauß, Susanne

Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations : Why Do Students Switch Majors in German Higher Education?

Dateien

Meyer_2-1s33gdqhxv5bh6.pdfGröße: 779.53 KBDownloads: 116

Datum

2022

Autor:innen

Meyer, Jasmin

Leuze, Kathrin

Strauß, Susanne

Open Access-Veröffentlichung

Open Access Hybrid

Sammlungen

Soziologie
Exzellenzcluster "Die politische Dimension von Ungleichheit"

Publikationstyp

Zeitschriftenartikel

Publikationsstatus

Published

Erschienen in

Research in Higher Education. Springer. 2022, 63(2), pp. 222-247. ISSN 0361-0365. eISSN 1573-188X. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s11162-021-09650-y

Zusammenfassung

While a large body of research addresses both subject choice and student dropout in higher education, much less is known about switching the initially chosen major. Therefore, we ask why students switch their major in higher education and analyse this for the case of Germany, taking the timing and the degree of such switches (within and across subject groups) into account. Based on the extended rational choice framework, we identify three aspects that might explain switching majors: individual achievement in secondary education, a (mis)match between individual occupational interests and the content of studies and parental and peer judgement regarding the initial subject choice. We test the derived hypotheses by applying logistic regression models to representative data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Starting Cohort 5. Our results indicate that the analysed aspects of individual achievement, person-major fit and social expectations affect switching majors, but their influence varies according to the degree and timing of the switch. While high-achieving students are more likely to switch majors, especially across disciplines and at a later stage in their studies, a mismatch in occupational interests mainly affects switching majors across broad subject groups. Finally, disapproval of the initial subject choice by parents and peers matters most for switches during the first two semesters and across academic disciplines.

Fachgebiet (DDC)

300 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie

Schlagwörter

Switching major, Individual performance, Person-major fit, Social expectations, Germany

Zitieren

ISO 690

MEYER, Jasmin, Kathrin LEUZE, Susanne STRAUSS, 2022. Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations : Why Do Students Switch Majors in German Higher Education?. In: Research in Higher Education. Springer. 2022, 63(2), pp. 222-247. ISSN 0361-0365. eISSN 1573-188X. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s11162-021-09650-y

BibTex

@article{Meyer2022-03Indiv-54327,
  year={2022},
  doi={10.1007/s11162-021-09650-y},
  title={Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations : Why Do Students Switch Majors in German Higher Education?},
  number={2},
  volume={63},
  issn={0361-0365},
  journal={Research in Higher Education},
  pages={222--247},
  author={Meyer, Jasmin and Leuze, Kathrin and Strauß, Susanne}
}

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Universitätsbibliographie

Ja

Begutachtet

Ja