Grade- and programme-related differences in career planning competence among undergraduates at a Chinese university

Abstract Career planning competence (CPC) is a planning-specific form of adaptive career behaviour through which students translate career intentions into structured goals, action plans, and feedback-based adjustment. This study examined CPC across undergraduate grade levels and programme contexts among 1,009 students at a public university in Chengdu, China, using a cross-sectional cohort-comparison design. The sample included 372 English-major students enrolled in teacher-education programmes and 637 students enrolled in non-education programmes. Two-way analyses of variance showed significant main effects of grade level and programme type on total CPC and all five dimensions, whereas Grade × Programme type interactions were not significant. CPC was similar among freshmen and sophomores, higher among juniors than among students in the first two years, and did not differ significantly between juniors and seniors. English-major teacher-education students reported higher total CPC and higher scores across all five dimensions than non-education students, with small effect sizes. These findings indicate that CPC is associated with undergraduate stage and programme context, but do not establish within-person developmental change or causal effects of programme structure. The study contributes to a context-sensitive understanding of career self-regulation and planning-related adaptive behaviour in higher education.