Career development of degree students in self-financing institutions in Hong Kong: The impact of institution related experience and beyond

Abstract

In the face of the dynamic labor market of 21st century, fostering career development of the students that prepares them for the uncertainty of the world of work is an integral part of quality higher education (Kumar, 2007). Career development of students in the self-financing sector of Hong Kong is especially important considering the doubts concerning the employability and income of these graduates in the society. However, the career development of students in these institutions is a neglected topic in research. Thus, our research served as the first attempt to undertake this topic. We aimed to provide a picture of the career development status of degree students in these institutions. More importantly, we undertook to explore the impact of the institution related experiences of these students on their career development in addition to the more established personal factors. The results can provide insight of how the self-institutions can structure students' experiences to enhance their career development. We examined career adaptability, career decision making self-efficacy (CDMSE) and career commitment as indicators of student career development.

The study sample consisted of 633 final year students from 5 self-financing institutions in Hong Kong, covering different disciplines of study. We compared the levels of career development of the students with the norms of similar samples internationally. Furthermore, we explored the differences in the levels of career development of students in a number of aspects, including gender, program of study, whether the students are local or non-local students, campus career service usage and whether they have internship experience.

Finally, we built regression models for each aspect of career development respectively to explore the significant predictors of each aspect and how much variance the predictors predict of each aspect. We explored the same three blocks of predictors for each aspect of career development. The first block indicated institution related experience, including whether the students have internship experience, the frequency of campus career service usage and the level of career support the students perceived. The second block indicated students' self-perceived academic achievement. The third and final block indicated students' level of past career exploration experience. The three blocks explained 23.2%, 18.2% and 17.3% of variance in career adaptability, CDMSE and career commitment respectively. Detailed results and the implications of the results for career service and student development service in self-financing institutions in Hong Kong will be further discussed in our presentation.