Perceived academic and socioeconomic factors influencing career choice among students at public universities in Peru

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the perceived academic and socioeconomic factors that influenced the choice of a professional career. The research was conducted with a sample of 317 students from two public universities in southern Peru. Data were collected through the administration of a questionnaire consisting of two main sections: academic factors influencing career choice, which included multiple-choice questions about course preference and difficulty in secondary education (Mathematics, Language and Communication, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, Social Sciences, etc.), and the socioeconomic factor. The data were processed using descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, and cross-tabulations. The results reveal that students tend to choose careers in which their preferred secondary school subjects correspond to fields where the perceived level of difficulty is low or moderate, and that subjects considered highly difficult are not central to the chosen career. The choice of a professional career is a multifactorial but hierarchical process: personal vocation is the primary factor, followed by another important factor, which is family influence.