Abstract:

Career change is a common occurrence in any university and related to their academic engagement. From a third-person point of view, this event is usually considered a failure to obtain a degree, but it is important to study career change from the student’s perspective.

Engagement is a variable related to the quality of students’ life experience in their university career, which enables them to go beyond the academic results and analyze the relevant components of their university context. The objective of this paper is to collect the students’ perceptions and assessments about their university life in the context of a private institution in Lima, Peru. Likewise, it is intended to describe how university students relate these perceptions and assessments to their permanence or change in their university career. For this purpose, a qualitative information report was carried out, using a semi-structured interview. Fourteen students who were in their last year of career or who have just finished their studies participated in this study; they belonged to the Science and Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculties.

The results show that the main reasons for a career change are related to changing interests, the students’ perception of their performance and future job opportunities. In addition, the data suggest that after a change in their university career, students feel more committed to their studies and show better performance. Finally, career change has a number of emotional, familiar and job-related implications in the student´s life such as facing their families about their choice, leaving friends behind and exploring new job opportunities. These results show how the social context can affect the student´s academic experiences.

Keywords:

Academic engagement, career change, tertiary education.