Abstract
This study explores the reasons behind the popularity of majoring in Public Relations as opposed to Journalism or Digital Media among mass communications undergraduates in Oman. It attempts to gain insight into the factors influencing students’ decision-making process in selecting their major. It explores factors such as choice of major and sources of information that shape students’ knowledge and perception of the majors, using variables such as knowledge of job market, knowledge of curriculum, information sources and personal influences shaping major choice and selection. The study confirms that perception of the job market is a crucial factor in the selection of the majors. It also reveals that family plays a crucial role in influencing students’ decision-making process while choosing a major. The study concludes that strengthening the role of the academic advisor and educating students on course content and learning outcomes can increase the acceptance of less popular majors among communication undergraduates. The study is relevant in the context that the falling numbers of student enrolments in some areas of media studies could lead to a decline in teaching and research activities in those areas, in addition to a possible shortfall of specific skilled professionals in the national labour market pool.
Citation
Mishra, N., Ismail, A.A. and Al Hadabi, S.J. (2017), "A major choice: exploring the factors influencing undergraduate choices of Communication major", Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 54-72. https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v14.n2.292
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Naveen Mishra, Abduraoof Ahmed Ismail and Sanaa Juma Al Hadabi
License
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Acknowledgements
Publisher's note: The Publisher would like to inform the reader that the article “A major choice: exploring the factors influencing undergraduate choices of Communication major” has changed pagination. Previous pagination was pp. 1-19. The updated pagination for the article is now pp. 54-72. The Publisher apologises for any inconvenience caused.