Chinese students' view on motivation to pursue postgraduate studies

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the motivation of whether pursuing postgraduate study or not among Chinese students in Inner Mongolia University and Dalian Nationalities University. All in all fourteen specific questions were designed in the questionnaire. Psychodynamic theory, social cognitive theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory have been employed to analyze the data. The results indicate that students’ motivations to pursue postgraduate studies have both internal and external causes. For those who want to pursue postgraduate studies, the internal causes can be listed as following: a higher degree for a decent job and students’ thirst for knowledge. The external causes include peer influence and extra expectation to fulfill parents' dreams. Those who do not want to pursue postgraduate studies hold more than a different idea on the relation between a better job and a higher degree. They think they can find a good job without a higher degree, and higher education level will not make any difference.