Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Educational Review, 2025 (SSCI)
This paper pinpoints the driving forces behind university degree choice in social sciences in three European countries. Using an international comparative design, the paper draws on both administrative secondary data to explore enrolment patterns in Hungary, Norway and England, as well as semi-structured interviews comparing perceptions of Bachelors, Masters and PhD sociology students of their subject choice (NHU = 17; NNO = 12; NEN = 9). Enrolment figures for institutions offering sociology as a subject between 2008 and 2018 show that in England social sciences in general, and sociology in particular seem to be somewhat larger disciplines compared to Hungary or Norway. Based on student interviews the paper provides a typology along the axes of sociology focusing on oneself or others, and it being a generic or specific discipline. The resultant typology for degree choice ranges from an explanation for personal experience; to gaining tools to understand society, politics and broader inequalities; to sociological studies being a general basis for a career; and to hope for changing others’ inequalities. The paper demonstrates that these diverse motivations are indeed relevant for curriculum planning and facilitating extracurricular participation, for sociology and also the broader social sciences. Students’ motivations are not underpinned by a narrow and individualised understanding of financial returns to a degree: students aim for a meaningful job exploring, analysing and aiming to effect change in their broader or narrower societal context.