Educational choice regarding technical education: research with case study

Abstract

In first part, the models, theories, mechanisms and presumptions, as well as the ideas of educational choice’ discourse have been scrutinized. In the second part, the survey on educational choice at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania has been presented. The methodology used in this research is a survey of respondents and survey interpretation. The goal of questionnaire is to identify the main trends in the choice of studies at a technical university. An additional goal is to identify which educational choice theory reflects in the best way students’ real decisions when choosing a specific study program. The survey shows that the following study programmes are enough feminine: “Environmental Protection Engineering”, “Bioengineering” and “Biomechanics”. Nearly 80 per cent of students in those programs are females. “Electronics Engineering”, “Information Systems Engineering” and “Transport Engineering” tends to be fully masculine (90-100 per cent of students are males). A technical university deals with such masculine subjects as technology, engineering, and mathematics usually have been mostly chosen by the mails. Choosing a study programme, the decision depends on the social class of a young man (woman). We can speak also about such factors of educational choice as the social, the cultural, and the creative capitals.