A Historical Analysis of Career Choice among Chinese College Students

Abstract

This study provides a historical analysis and review of the contemporary development of career choice orientations among Chinese college students in light of recent economic reform policies. Specifically, it describes the changes in, and developing trends of, career choice orientations in the past, present, and future among college students. This analysis reveals that with the profound transition from a centralized planned economy to a market economy in recent China, students’ career orientation has experienced a transformation from a societal standard to an individualistic standard; personal goals have changed from idealism to realism; and ideologies have developed from a unilateral structure to the coexistence of multiple systems. Such an intrinsic link between Chinese college students’ career choice orientation and social and economic development has implications for higher education with respect to new requirements for academic programs and curricular content.