Determinants of Specialization selection decision among Management Undergraduates in the University of Vavuniya

Abstract

The selection of special degree is one of the most important decisions an undergraduate student has to make in higher education in the university which plays a major role in their future. The objective of the study is to understand the factors which influence the selection of specialization domains among the management students of the University of Vavuniya. The sample of 107 students who are studying in first year first semester in the academic year 2023/2024 were selected purposely and the relevant information were collected thorough a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using frequency and to identify the factors influencing the choice of special degree, probit regression model was employed. The results of frequency analysis revealed that 80.3% of the first - year students prefer to choose other specialization degree such as, accounting or human resources management or marketing management or entrepreneurship and only 19.6% them prefer to follow business economics. Estimated results of probit model suggested that, personal consideration is the most important factor followed by influence of family at higher level were the major determinants in the selection of special degree. Further, other important factor is the sources of information and among them, information from faculty website has highly influencing the choice of special degree followed by academic quality. The findings of this study can be used as an effort to better understand not only how the students choose their special degree, but also why many students do not select the business economics as their specialization in the degree program.