Unravelling why students do or do not stay committed to a programme when making a higher education choice

Journal of Further and Higher Education, vol. 46, pp. 651–666

Abstract

Over the past forty years, scholars have been studying students’ choice of higher education programmes to unravel the complexity of the choice process. Recent studies have shown that students may commit to a programme, i.e. they make a choice to enrol in that programme, when they find a programme that attunes well with their interests. Students may nonetheless decide to switch from one programme to another before final enrolment and research has not yet sufficiently explained why they do that. The present study therefore focused on the mechanisms underlying students changing their minds after they had previously committed to a higher education programme. Eighteen semi-structured interviews with Dutch pre-university students in their final year at school were held just before final enrolment: students retraced their higher education programme choice process over time with the help of a timeline and a storyline. Interviews were thematically analysed. We identified two mechanisms whereby students, sometimes quite suddenly, switched in their commitment from one programme to another and two mechanisms that could hold them back from committing to another programme despite having doubts. This paper provides detailed theoretical insight into how students make higher education programme choices over time and concludes with practical recommendations on how to support students.

Authors 4

1. Jonne Pieter Vulperhorst corresponding

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Education, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

2. Roeland Matthijs van der Rijst Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Henriette Tolstrup Holmegaard

   University of Copenhagen

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark

4. Sanne Floor Akkerman

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Education, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands