To Stay or to Leave: Major Selection and Reselection of Civil Engineering Students in China

• In Event: Examining dynamics, pathways, and students' experiences: Chinese higher education in comparison

Proposal

Research background
In recent times, the civil engineering (CE) profession has been developing rapidly by taking up the important task of national industrial development. However, Since the 21st century, the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects in China has slowed down, leading to a gradual modernization in all sectors to align with national strategies. On one hand, traditional industries have long been responsible for nationwide infrastructure construction; on the other hand, fewer students are opting for CE in their national college entrance exam (NCEE), with the rate of students transferring out surpassing that of those transferring in. Many students have changed their majors, attended graduate school in another field of study, and engaged in jobs that do not correspond to their majors after graduation. This trend of students "escaping" from CE majors highlights the need to explore their motive in fleeing from or sticking to their major in order to optimize the structure of education and cultivate talents.

Theoretical framework
This study adopts a qualitative research paradigm and uses interviews as the data collection method, focusing on CE students' journey of choosing their major, along with the context of their NCEE application, major-related experience, academic progression and career planning.
The study includes 24 participants, consisting of undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students, graduates, and international students from University A, a long-established national "double first-class", former "985 project" and former "211 project" comprehensive university. It is one of the "old eight universities", which are famous for their civil engineering and architecture specialties, and more than half of its graduates have obtained engineering degrees in each of the past three years.
Subjects were through by open recruitment and targeted invitation via an online chat community. The interview locations included cafes, offices, and leisure plazas, with the aim of creating a relaxed atmosphere for conversation. Each interview lasted 1-2 hours and was recorded and transcribed for analysis with the consent of the interviewees.

Research Findings
The choice of CE students' majors is influenced by the interaction of society, family and university. Social factors include cultural perceptions and objective realities, family factors mainly influence students' choice of major and their career expectations, and university factors permeate the whole process from voluntary application to graduation, directly influencing students' professional escape process.
Social factors play the most profound influence on students' "escape" from their major. Cultural norms often instill a utilitarian perspective on career choice, and students' dissatisfaction with the salary and working environment within the CE industry leads to their desire to escape. The objective reality of the society is that the employment situation is not optimistic under the influence of higher education reform, politics, economy, epidemic and other aspects. Switching professions requires students to overcome multiple obstacles, including difficulties in finding jobs outside their field of study, the time and energy invested in courses and internships, and discouragement from teachers.
Reasons for students choosing to remain in the CE profession vary. Some view it as the best option after weighing the pros and cons, particularly those who see it as an instrumental path to secure civil service positions. Others choose to stay out of their genuine passion for CE, their confidence in the industry, and their expectations for the future. Furthermore, the CE profession acts as a filter, retaining students who exhibit traits such as conformity, competence in learning, conservatism, diligence, and limited exposure to information.
To analyze the issue, this study adopts the push-pull theory. By examining the push and pull forces within the CE major and of alternative majors as well as intermediate factors, the study constructs a model to expound students' vacillation between staying in or switching out of the CE major.

Result and conclusion
The "escapees" from the CE profession are not destined to remain in the field. The process of major selection often stems from coincidental enrollment in CE majors due to the imperfect talent-major matching mechanism. Thus, major reselection allows students to develop self-awareness and choose a suitable future based on reflections about their major and themselves. From the initial passive, unintentional major selection after the NCEE to a more active and intentional second choice, the "escape" reflects students' awakening self-awareness rather than mere conformity. From an optimistic point of view, the "escapees" deepen their self-understanding during their college years and are brave enough to change the track, which underscores the role of college education in nurturing individuals.
There are various problems in the entire process of university education, from enrollment and training to graduate employment. During the admissions stage, students, parents and teachers mostly uphold the concept of "not wasting a single point" to fill in the majors, and majors are equivalently converted into scores, so that the major-person match sought by university admissions actually becomes a score-person match. Since excessive or distorted admissions propaganda is obscuring such underlying crisis, universities should create an atmosphere conducive to rational choice and provide students with objective and comprehensive information. Students' confusion and lack of judgement in choosing their majors highlight the weakness in career education at the basic education level and the problem of high school-university education transition. Regarding the curriculum, issues including the excessive number of courses, the overwhelming difficulty of certain courses, the discrepancy between course content and industry reality, and the inflexibility of the training program need to be addressed. Universities should deepen the curriculum reform, revamp the education philosophy, and return to the original purpose of education: to foster whole individuals rather than just civil engineers or industrial elites. In terms of employment, students' utilitarian orientation in career choices is obvious, necessitating universities' assistance in cultivating a correct understanding of career, employment and career choice through aspirational education and career counselling in order to realize the unity of personal value and social value.

Authors

• YUNXIA ZHANG, Tongji University

• 林 欣 叶, 同济大学

• Yuzhi Deng, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

• Yue Chen, Tongji University