GUIDELINES FOR SELECTING MAJORS AT SHANGHAI UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE BY NEWLY ADMITTED STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY INFLUENCES OF MAJOR OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION IN CHINA

Abstract

This study targets first-year students, selected faculty members, and administrative staff from Shanghai University of Engineering Science’s School of Electronic Information. Its core goals are to explore factors influencing freshmen’s choice of electronic information majors under the broad-category enrollment policy and propose practical guidance strategies, adopting literature analysis, questionnaire surveys, and semi-structured interviews as research methods. With 230 valid questionnaires as the quantitative basis, the study conducted reliability, validity, descriptive and factor analyses. It also obtained qualitative support from interviews with five counselors and five admissions officers. Results show that major-related factors (employment prospects, major popularity, talent demand) and family factors (financial situation, parental expectations, parents’ educational backgrounds) have significant impacts, with family factors being particularly prominent. In contrast, university factors (reputation/ranking, geographic location, tuition) and individual factors (personal interests, abilities) matter less, though five indicators —interests, abilities, major popularity, employment prospects, university reputation—exert strong effects. Guidance is provided for students (self-assessment, industry trend awareness, practical experience), parents (understanding children, major exploration support), and universities (professional education, curriculum optimization, advisory systems). The study acknowledges limitation of its narrow sample; future research should expand samples, cover more disciplines, and use longitudinal approaches for deeper insights.

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