“Love What You Choose”：College Students' Academic Identity Under the College Entrance Examination Reform

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Teaching, Learning, and Identity in Higher Education: Perspectives from Reform, Mobility, and Networked Environments

Proposal

This study investigates the impact of China’s new College Entrance Examination Reform on college students’ academic identity and career congruence. Drawing on the Input–Environment–Output (I-E-O) model, the research conceptualizes academic identity across three dimensions—behavioral persistence (major-transfering), affective commitment (major satisfaction), and occupational matching (major-job alignment)—forming a “behavior–affect–career” framework.
Using data from the 2024 National College Student Survey (NCSS), one of the largest representative student surveys in China, the study analyzes 125,938 undergraduates, including 46,593 from reform provinces. Students in these regions follow the “3+1+2” subject selection model, which aims to enhance flexibility while mitigating mismatches between majors and prior academic preparation.
The empirical strategy combines Logit models, OLS regressions, and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to identify causal effects and test robustness. Results show that:1.The reform significantly reduces major-transfer behaviors and increases major satisfaction, indicating improved short-term adaptation.2.However, it exerts no significant effect on major-job alignment, suggesting limited long-term influence on career fit.
Institutional satisfaction moderates reform effects: while institutional satisfaction generally enhances major satisfaction, it offsets reform-driven gains, revealing a compensatory relationship between college and major choices.3.Heterogeneity analysis indicates weaker effects in non-elite institutions and STEM fields, where satisfaction remains relatively low.
This study contributes to international education research by extending the I-E-O model to the context of China’s high-stakes exam reform, offering both theoretical enrichment and empirical evidence on how policy shifts shape students’ academic and professional identities. The findings highlight the reform’s strength in fostering short-term major commitment but expose structural limits in linking education to labor market outcomes. The paper argues for moving beyond exam-centered reforms toward a holistic talent development ecosystem that integrates major choice, institutional support, and career pathways.

Author

• Dong Ruoxi, 南京大学