Factors Influencing Chinese College Students’ Major Switching from the Perspective of Social Cognitive Career Theory

By employing the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this paper made a qualitative inquiry into the factors influencing college students’ decisions to switch their majors and their decision-making processes. Seventeen students (11 in the follow-up) who succeeded in switching their majors reported their major-switching experiences through two-phase questionnaires. The first phase produced three major themes: employment prospects, academic interest, and self-efficacy encouragement. These themes involved five subthemes—positive employment prospects, career plan, interest in the major, academic performance, and parental modelling—that influence students’ decisions to switch their majors. The second phase reconfirmed the crucial factor of employment prospects. Additionally, the study revealed that parents played a significant role in students’ decision-making processes. This study provides valuable insights into students’ decisions to switch majors, helping colleges better understand students’ perceptions about major-switching, and consequently, colleges could play a more important role in guiding students in their decision-making processes and improving support systems to facilitate major switching.