An Empirical Study On The Educational Goals And Aspirations Of Undergraduate Students In Nanjing University

The subject of this study is the educational goals and aspirations of undergraduate students in Nanjing University. And the specific research subjects include the educational aspirations, occupational aspirations, plans after graduation and goals of university life. The purpose of this study is using the data from SERU (Student Experience in Research University) survey of Nanjing University and University of California-Berkeley in2011to show the general condition and structure of the educational goals and aspirations of undergraduate students in Nanjing University and analysis the factors influencing them. It also wants to show the similarities and differences between the two research universities from China and the United States on this subject. And on this basis, this study wants to provide useful ideals and valuable data for the theme of undergraduate education quality improvement in research universities and educational fair, from the perspective of students themselves.This study finds that undergraduate students in Nanjing University have high educational aspiration, most of them expect to get master degree or above. And this higher educational aspiration is influenced by various factors, including gender differences, disciplines, background of parents and the frequency of communication between students and specialty teachers. The probability of women expecting to get a doctorate, when controlling the other factors, is still lower than men in Nanjing University. And the students from medical discipline and natural science discipline have higher educational aspirations than students from other disciplines. Students whose parents have higher degree and more incomes are more likely to aspire for a doctorate. Also, the students who communicate with specialty teachers more frequently are more likely to aspire for a doctorate.Further education instead of direct employment is the first choice of undergraduate students in Nanjing University. And the aspired occupations focus on "commercial and financial related occupations","engineering, computer programming occupations" and "researchers, scientists occupations". Different from the educational aspirations, there is no direct relationship between parental occupations and students’ occupational aspirations, and so is the family income.Pursuing further education is the plan after graduation that most undergraduate students in Nanjing University choose. And the ratio of students who plan to pursue further education after graduation is effected by the level of the students’ family income, and so is the ratio of students who plan to study abroad.The most important goal of university life of undergraduate students in Nanjing University is to recognizing themselves and building their values, followed by building meaningful friendships and other goals on career development and knowledge pursuing.In the end, the students’ chooses are different between the two research universities from China and the United States on those subjects.