Effects of Family Background on Students’ Academic Choice at University Level in South Asian Countries

Abstract

Academic choice is a complex decision for students since it determines the kind of profession
that they intend to pursue in life. The study is designed to see the effect of family background on
academic choice of students at university level in South Asian countries. The main concern of the
study is to describe the factors that affect the academic choice among universities‟ students in
Pakistan. The study is an attempt to go through the related literature. For this purpose certain
articles and researches were consulted, material was also collected through internet. The
objectives of the study were:1 to find out the influence of family background on academic choice
among university students.2 to checks the influence of predictor on academic choice among
university students. This study was based on descriptive research and quantitative by nature.
Population of the study was the students of public and private universities. Sample of this study
consists of six hundred and five (605) students was drawn through cluster random sampling, four
hundreds seventeen (417) students of this study is from public universities and one hundred and
eighty eight (188) students from private universities of Lahore.
Questionnaire was used as an instrument for this study. Questionnaire was consisted of
twenty five statements. Responses were added on five point Likert scale from strongly agree to
strongly disagree. Data were analysed by SPSS with the combination of descriptive and
inferential statistics which contained frequencies, percentage, mean, standard deviation while
inferential analysis included correlation, t-test and one way ANOVA. Then analysis data was
interpreted in table and findings were drawn and conclusion was given.
There was no significant difference between the male and female students with family
background. There was no significant difference between the public and private students with
family background. There was no significant difference between the parents‟ educations and
students‟ subject selection. There was no significant difference between the father‟s occupation
and students‟ subject selection. There was a significant difference between the siblings‟
education and students‟ subject selection.