factors affecting students changing their major to information systems
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Factors Affecting Students Changing Their Major toInformation Systems
Thabang SerumolaCITANDA
Department of Information SystemsUniversity of Cape Town
Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7700, South AfricaTel: +27 216504259
Lisa F. SeymourCITANDA
Department of Information SystemsUniversity of Cape Town
Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7700, South AfricaTel: +27 216504259
ABSTRACTThe growing shortage of skills in information communicationtechnology (ICT) is a major concern in Southern Africa andglobally. ICT is critical to national development and businesssuccess and therefore the need for skills is growing. Yet despitehigh job availability and high starting salaries in ICT, students arenot choosing to study in ICT fields. In this study we look at theInformation Systems (IS) major where prior studies have foundthat misperceptions of the major exist in schools. Yet at universitythese misperceptions can be addressed. In this inductive andretroductive case study we identify the factors that studentsconsider when changing their major to IS. The perceived value ofIS is found to play a major role in students choosing the IS major.Events that trigger the process of changing major to IS include aloss of passion for previous major or difficulty in previous majoras well as enjoyment of the introductory IS course. The paperargues for a generic first year for students as well as a focus onenjoyment and skills aligned to IS professional practice inintroductory IS courses.
Categories and Subject DescriptorsH.0 [Information Systems]: General.
General TermsManagement, Human Factors.
KeywordsICT skills, Information systems careers, IS major, computingcurricula.
1. INTRODUCTIONSouth Africa faces a shortage of information communicationtechnology (ICT) skills, outsourcing of some ICT skills and
emigration of highly skilled ICT personnel [26]. These problemsare not restricted to South Africa and are felt globally. Statisticsproduced by the United States (US) Department of Labour for2010-2020 show that 73% of new United States Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) jobs through2020 will be in Computing [13]. Because of the constantlyevolving ICT industry new ICT job roles are being introduced;such as IT Architect, Social Network Manager and WebSpecialists [14]. As more ICT jobs are created, skills shortageswill increase [34]. Increased student enrolments into computingdisciplines could provide relief, but it seems that enrolments arenot increasing sufficiently [23, 25, 29]. This combination offactors is contributing to a growing ICT skills shortage [5, 14, 17,19]. This is particularly concerning as ICT is the platform onwhich most, if not all, businesses depend on to carry out dailyoperations [11].
There are many reasons why working in ICT is attractive. Firstly,ICT careers have one of the most competitive salaries in theworld. IS majors received the highest average starting salary amongthe US Class of 2014 [40] andcomputer science and IS are the only non-engineering majorsamong the top 10 highest paid bachelor's graduates [39]. Secondly,ICT careers are evolving as new ICT jobs types are created andnew technologies are introduced and this gives ICT careers theircompetitive edge [12, 14]. A decline in computing disciplineenrolments therefore raises concerns as to whether students aremaking adequate career choices and whether students areknowledgeable about the different computing careers available tothem [26]. IS is one of the 5 computing disciplines and priorstudies have shown that the IS discipline suffers from significantmisperceptions in schools [46]. Yet these misperceptions can beaddressed at University where students can reconsider their choiceof major. This study therefore investigates factors influencingstudents changing their major to IS at university.
2. IS CAREER CHOICE LITERATUREFactors affecting students choosing IS as a major can be dividedinto Social, Structural and Individual according to the Adya andKaiser computing student career choice model [1]. Social factorsinclude student perceptions concerning the IS major, jobsopportunities, career, importance and relevance in society.Structural factors represent institutional support available to
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students in pursuit of their careers. Structural factors includelecturer/career advisor, technology access and institutionaleducational arrangements [35]. For example, female students andstudents with low computer literacy have been found to rely onuniversity structures as a source of learning more than male andexperienced students [45].
Very little research has been done to investigate the structuralfactors impacting career/major choice [1]. Lotriet, Matthee andAlexander [35] researched one aspect of the Ayda and Kaiser [1]career choice model, namely, internet connectivity and its impacton computing majors. They criticised the career choice model astheir findings showed that structural and individual factors are notindependent.
Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) shows how basic careerinterests develop over time and has been applied to career choicesmade by IS students by many authors [2, 6, 17, 27, 35]. SCCTgives the two dominant individual factors in career choice as self-efficacy and outcome expectations.
Factors that affect students choosing any computing degree andhow the factors relate to students during their high school yearshave been researched [5, 6, 16, 17, 37, 46]. Yet, not much researchhas been conducted after students have completed their first yearof University. Much of the research on perceptions is based onpupil misperceptions and lack of access to technology. Yet oncestudents have completed first year at university and a mandatorycomputing course these misperceptions should have beenaddressed and lack of technology should no longer play a role.Therefore what are the other factors that students consider whenchoosing to major in Information Systems?
Previous researchers have argued that these factors are complexand inter-related and need in-depth exploration. Hence thisresearch aimed to determine why students change their major to ISafter their first year at university. The context was the University
faculty where students irrespective oftheir major follow a mostly common first year and can changetheir major at the end of their first year in most cases withoutextending the length of their degree.
3. METHODA single interpretive case study was chosen for this researchbecause it enabled a deep exploration into individuals and theirbehaviour [8]. The case chosen in this research was the CommerceFaculty at the University of Cape Town. Students have to choosea major when arriving, yet, with the exception of computer scienceand actuarial science, they have the freedom to change majors andonly after the end of their first year does changing majors becomerestraining. For majors which include IS, Accounting, Economics,Finance, Marketing and Organisational Psychology the first year
The common first year courses include Accounting, Economics,Business Law, Mathematics, Statistics, Evidence BasedManagement and IS.
The introductory first year IS course focuses on studentsunderstanding information systems within organisations as well astheir broader impact. In addition students get introduced tocomputational thinking techniques used in software engineering;analyse data using Microsoft Excel; and design and implementsimple applications using a programming language.
A list of 18 students who had transferred into IS during 2014 wasobtained from the Student Records Office. The most commonprior majors were Accounting (6 students) and Finance (3students). The researcher sent an individual email to thesestudents inviting them for an interview. Semi-structuredinterviews [38] were conducted with the 8 students whoresponded (Table 1). The research questions and themes from theliterature formed the basis for the interview questions. Alimitation to this study is that not all students invited respondedand this could have introduced bias. The sample size of eight isdeemed to be sufficient for qualitative analysis although moreresponses would have been preferred and theoretical saturationwas not reached.
Inductive and retroductive approaches were used for the research.An inductive approach observes phenomena and develops atheory [22] while retroduction seeks to explain sequence of eventsby postulating and identifying mechanisms which are capable ofproducing them [20]. Thematic analysis was used to analyse thedata inductively [10]. As part of the retroductive approach,students were also asked to describe the sequence of events thattranspired before they changed their major. Some factors affectingstudents choosing IS as a major confirmed some of the priortheoretical models and therefore this research also had elements ofdeduction.
Table 1. List of research participants
InterviewCode Gender
Year theychanged to IS Previous Major
I1, I2, I8 Male Second Year Accounting
I3 Male Third YearComputer and
Electrical Engineering
I4 Male Third Year Computer Science
I5 Male Third Year Accounting
I6 Female Second Year Actuarial Science
I7 Male Third Year Marketing
4. IS PERCEPTIONS FROM SCHOOLSSTILL PREVALENT AT UNIVERSITYThe assumption made is that misperceptions of majors wouldhave been resolved by the end of first year atuniversity and that students would have relatively equal access totechnology provided by the university and have experiencedimproved computer efficacy by completing the introductory IScourse. Yet students are reluctant to change majors and it becameapparent in this research that factors which were prevalent in highschool still affected interviewees. These factors were dominatedby misperceptions of the value of IS and a lack of IS information.
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4.1 A lack of IS InformationThe comments by the students showed that they were notpreviously exposed to IS and hence this was why they did notchoose IS. What was also mentioned was that IS was notmentioned by teachers and not advertised in high schoolrecruitment.
t it
[I8].
they only choose to do what they have been exposed toand have heard about. Too few people have heard aboutIS and so more people choose other B.Com. degrees[I1].
[I2]
4.2 Misperceptions of the value of ISStudents expressed that their view of IS was skewed based on theinformation they received prior to university and based on whatthey saw at school.
(France) I was told that there were not enough jobs. Irealise now after a few years that it is actually the
very like prestigious, *inaudible*.....a lot of people go-
5. IS CAREER CHOICE FACTORS ATUNIVERSITYConsidering the reluctance to change majors, the factors that drovesome students to change their major to Information Systems wereconsidered. As part of the inductive analysis 11 core themesemerged. The number of empirical observations or text extractswhich were counted for each theme are listed in the Table 2.
The relevant ranking of each theme was determined by the countof observations for the theme as well as the importance thatinterviewees gave to the theme. The retroductive analysis for eachinterview focused on the core sequence of events that led to astudent changing their major to Information Systems. While astudent might have referred to many themes only the dominantones were selected. In the paragraph below and in Figure 1 theretroductive analysis for I1 is presented.
prestigious and a lot of people go for accounting-
was in the accounting profession, therefore he choseaccounting because it was familiar to him. Before hearrived at university he had no information regardingIS. After he arrived at University, he found accounting
boring and wanted to pursue his interest in Information
He enjoyed the introductory course and was inspired by
to thpossible career paths and decided at the beginning of hissecond year to change to IS.
Table 2. Result of inductive and retroductive analysis
Factor
loss of passion for previousmajor
11 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
difficulty with previousmajor
4 8 1 2
enjoyment of introductoryIS course
8 5 2 2 1 2
alternate options 6 6 2
academic performance inintroductory IS course
5 7 3 2 3 4
Seeking IS information 9 4 5 2 5 4 2 4 3 3
risk and uncertainty inchanging major
2 11 4 3
perceived value of IS 15 1 4 3 4 3 5
IS interest / preference 11 3 3 5
restrictions on choice ofmajor/courses
4 9 6 4
recruiter influence 3 10 5
This sequence of events leading to I1 changing his major to IS isalso numbered in column I1 in Table 2. The same analysis wasrepeated for all interviewees and is presented in the relevantcolumns in Table 2 and is presented graphically in Figure 2.Dominant factors are in in bold font. Factors which triggered orstarted the process of changing major are referred to as triggerfactors and are depicted in italicized font. Factors at the end of theprocess which preceded the event of actually changing major to ISare shown in shaded circles. In the following sections each themewill be discussed in the context of existing literature following theirsequence in the retroductive analysis.
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loss of passionfor previous
major
enjoyment ofintroductory IS
course
Seeking ISinformation
perceived valueof IS
IS interest /preference
Changed Majorto IS
Figure 1. Retroductive analysis for I1
5.1 Loss of Passion for Previous MajorThe second most dominant factor based on the number of
empirical observations and the most dominant trigger factor was
loss of passion for previous major. Students are reluctant to
change their initial major and it seems that the dominant driver is a
negative experience with their major as opposed to a positive
experience with another potential major, 7 out of the 8 students
who transferred into IS stated that the loss of passion for their
previous major made them rethink their major. Quoting I5: I just
continue with it
reflected in their educational and professional aspirations [41].
Research has indicated that students primarily lose interest
because of a lack of mentors, role models, and career guidance [43].
In contrast students in this research found their previous major
tedious and draining.
5.2 Difficulty with Previous MajorDifficulty with major was identified as a major factor contributing
to and was the trigger factor for one
student. Students expressed that the requirements for their
previous majors were too high to fulfil or they were just not
coping academically. Difficulty with a major can be linked to
to studying and intellectual development [24]. Difficulty with
major can cause students to reassess their academic standing and
investigate steps to ensure that they are able to fulfil degree
requirements. Sometimes it leads to changing degrees as is the case
with the students who changed to IS quoted here:
requirements for actuarial sciences were high and economics was
5.3 Enjoyment of Introductory IS CourseEnjoyment of the introductory IS course ranked fifth in the list of
factors that led to students choosing IS as a major, it was a factor
that was essential to the process and was the trigger factor for one
student. It also appeared to directly influence academic
performance in the introductory IS course. Some students passed
really well and were even performing better on the introductory
course than on their major and this increased their self-efficacy.
Hence Enjoyment for the introductory course sparked interest in
the IS major. Studies have shown that enjoyment of a major is an
intrinsic value and has a direct influence on intention to study [3].
Intrinsic motivation refers to the pleasure and satisfaction gained
from performing a behaviour [18]. Enjoyment is also based on the
experience that students have had working with computers [15].
Quoting I1:
because I have experience doing things that are unenjoyable and
When I did IS 1 I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed the part where you
is just a drag. You have to do tutorials then you have to do the
Enjoyment of the first year introductory course is an importantfinding, students perceive that if they enjoy a course they wouldenjoy a career in that field.
5.4 Alternate optionsSearching for alternate or secondary options was ranked 6th in thereasons why students choose IS as a major. It often followed fromstudents struggling academically in their initial major. Careerchoice can be linked to available options because students chosecareers that they have been exposed to and have self-efficacy [5, 6,25]. Some students referred to IS as not their first choice but dueto their performance in their first choice or due to curriculumconstraints in terms of changing to their best choice, they chose itas their alternate option as quoted here:
next IS courses and kind of forced myself through it and
-[I7].
I am
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loss of passionfor previous
major
enjoyment ofintroductory IS
course
difficulty withprevious major
academicperformance inintroductory IS
course
alternateoptions
Seeking ISinformation
restrictions onchoice of major/
courses
recruiterinfluence
risk anduncertainty in
changing major
perceived valueof IS
IS interest /preference
Figure 2 Sequence of factors affecting students changing to IS at university.
5.5 Academic Performance in introductory IScourseStudents are more likely to develop interests in a computing majorwhen they feel confident about their capabilities to succeed [2].Self-efficacy has been identified as the main factor when choosinga major/career [5, 6, 7, 28, 30, 33, 35, 42]. Self-efficacy isheightened through academic performance and thus influencesmajor choice [5, 7, 33, 42]. In this study the realisation that IS wasa good option was through academic performance in theintroductory course. This theme mostly followed enjoyment ofthe introductory IS course. Some students even found that theyperformed better in the introductory IS course than in their majorshence this was a core reason for choosing IS:
I3].
to do IS after marketing because I was getting 40s and
5.6 Seeking IS informationSeeking information about IS through personal research andsources of information regarding IS was a core factor and step inthe process of converting to IS for all respondents. All studentsdid some personal research to gain understanding of the IS majorbefore changing majors. Sometimes it led to directly changingmajors but it also led to unearthing risk and uncertainty orcurriculum restrictions. It was ranked as the fourth mostimportant factor. The sources of information regarding IS includedthe Faculty handbook, student advisors, IS graduates andrecruiters. Some students chose to identify students who hadchanged to IS and engaged with them. It is worth noting thatstudents chose to speak to people they deemed reliable andknowledgeable. Quoting three respondents:
year which is very generic to any degree and then I waslike ok, I made out all of the possible degrees I can do,so toostudied IS. First they gave me a hands on what the
talked to student advisors but they do it from a very like,this is how long it will take you not the
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interest me. Then I saw IS and CS in the booklet so Iplanned on changing to that and they said I could only
Students are known to seek information before making a decisionabout selecting a major. Previous research focusses on the seekingprocess prior to university where sources of information regardingchoice of major include family experiences of higher education andinformation sharing between students, families, schools anduniversities [36].
5.7 Risk and uncertainty in changing majorStudents mentioned feelings of unease when deciding to changemajors. I4 stated that even with all the information obtainedregarding IS, he still felt unsure about his decision to changemajors. I2 stated that he felt that it was a gamble to change majorsand it was not a decision he took lightly when consideringchanging majors: Also like it was a bit of a gamble to change to
changing a major, this is not like changing a course or dropping
Students that register for courses expect the benefits of the courseto exceed the costs of completing the course [9]. Students wantingto change majors faced this dilemma of evaluating whether itwould be worth changing major or not. This is linked to the riskand uncertain feeling they felt because they were unsure of theoutcomes.
5.8 Perceived value of ISPerceived value of IS was ranked as the dominant factor and hadthe highest count of empirical observations. The perceived valueof IS can be linked to the outcomes, such as future salary and highjob prospects, that students hope to achieve at the end of theiruniversity years and in their career. Furthermore, students saidthey valued the team based work environment offered by IS jobs
job opportunities that are open[I6].
people today...., everyone is doing something new and[I1].
route and learn a l
Inspiration by future outcomes/earnings has been documented in
theory as Outcome Expectations. This has been recognised as aleading factor in SCCT [2, 6, 17, 19, 27, 35]. Job security and jobavailability refer to the ease with which students will obtain theirfirst job after graduation and the availability of work throughouttheir careers [19]. Therefore long term prospects are veryimportant when choosing a major. Students change majors becauseof the other attractions associated with the new major such ascareer possibilities, more interesting courses and available jobopenings in the field [32]. Previous research has referred to this asperceived usefulness of IS or perceived importance of IS skills [4,5, 21, 25, 27].
5.9 IS interest / preferenceInterest and preference for IS curricula was the third mostdominant factor. All students said they chose IS because they hada preference and interest for the major and that they felt theirskills were aligned with IS. Interest and preference for IS wasdifferent for each interviewee. What was consistent was thatstudents wanted to work on computers and practical coursesrather than theoretical courses.
person; I have enjoyedtechno
The students wanted particular things out of IS. When choosing tochange majors, they evaluated where their interests lied.Furthermore, most students in the study preferred more teamwork based work scenarios provided by IS. Students who choosecomputing majors have been shown to have a preference for anexperimental style of learning rather than more structuredapproaches prevalent in non-computing majors [6]. Interest in IS
certain major which is unique and individualistic. Interest has been
for certain activities and actions [47]. A preference linked tovocational choice is often attributed to self-efficacy for the subject[42]. In this research this experience is largely attributed to theintroductory IS course.
5.10 Restrictions on choice of major/coursesRestrictions on choice of major relates to external influences suchas faculty, bursars and course requirements. I6 statedgoing to be a lot of competition for a Students who aregiven bursaries or financial aid that are linked to certain majors orhave restricted time periods are also known to be less likely totransfer majors and hence financial aid reduces the flow ofstudents between majors [31].
It is evident that some students lacked options when choosingtheir majors or even changing faculties. I8 expressed that:wanted to study IS and computer science and they said I needed tostudy more maths to add to computer science so I decided to justst This quote relates to institutional arrangements whichcan allow or disallow a student to study certain majors due to pre-
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requisite courses. Requirements in certain majors cause students tore-evaluate their academic standing and options when choosing amajor. In this study, changing to IS had relatively fewconsequences and was aligned with the number of years they weretaking for their previous major or it increased the length of thedegree by a year at most. This is mostly because of the commonfirst year. A previous study did identify factors such asprerequisite courses as hindrances to students pursuing theirchoice of major [44]. There has been a call for Universities to puteducation in the hands of students and have less restrictivecurricula and transfer rules [44].
5.11 Recruiter influenceExternal recruiters at university career fairs can be seen as amotivating factor when changing majors. It is worth noting thatthere was not one particular theme relevant to how the recruiters
information systems to students. Some recruitersmentioned amazing job opportunities whilst some mentioned thework involved. Recruiters show students that there are jobopportunities and that IS is very relevant. Recruiters are seen as apowerful influence because they are external and are perceived tohave less bias than student advisors and lecturers.
not recruiting but advertising, talking about how he usedto do something else but changed to IS and then he loved
talking to a lady working in Foschini groups who said
6. CONCLUSIONLimited increases in computing discipline enrolments [29] areproblematic when there is a simultaneous rise in demand for ICTprofessionals. Research has shown that the IS discipline ismisunderstood by pupils in schools which contributes to lowenrolment at university. In this case study in the Commercefaculty of UCT we researched students changing their major toInformation Systems after their first year of university. We arguethat after one year at university misperceptions from schoolshould have been addressed. The inductive and retroductiveanalysis investigated the factors that influence the process ofchanging major to IS.
The perceived value of IS, such as future salary and high jobprospects is found to play the dominant role in students changingto the IS major but is not the initial cause of them considering thechange.
In this case, the triggering events for changing a major include aloss of passion or difficulty in a current major and enjoyment ofan alternate introductory course. These factors can be generalisedoutside of this case setting and to other majors and hence thisresearch is of theoretical relevance as it adds to the literature onfactors impacting career choice in general. The experience ofstudents in first year courses needs to be aligned with theexperiences that professionals would face in their work
environment and therefore students that would enjoy working in aparticular professional would also enjoy the introductory course.
The identification of the dominant factors in this research is ableto provide a practical guide to Universities. To increaseenrolments in misunderstood majors, a generic first year forstudents is seen as critical and administrative or funding barriers tostudents changing their major need to be addressed.
To increase enrolments IS Departments can also make changes tothe first year introductory IS course as follows. Firstly, the coursecontent needs to focus on skills more aligned to IS professionalpractices so students are able to identify with the relevant workinterests and preference; secondly the course needs to be mademore enjoyable and thirdly IS information and the value of ISneeds to be conveyed in this course.
However further research is still needed and this research onlylooks at a small facet of a broader field. What would be theunintended consequences of these suggested actions? What otherfactors can influence students changing their majors? How manystudents graduate in majors that they later regret? These are allquestions worthy of future research.
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