DETERMINANTE IZBORA VISOKOG OBRAZOVANJA: MOTIVI I VREDNOSTI MATURANATA U SRBIJI
Determinants of Higher Education Choice: Motives and Values of High School Graduates in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines motives and values shaping Serbian high school graduates' decisions to enroll in higher education. Its aim is to establish the relative importance of intrinsic, pragmatic and social factors and to describe the decision-making process. A quantitative survey was conducted on a sample of 107 respondents. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations and descriptive subgroup comparisons were applied. Personal interests and intrinsic motivation were the highest-ranked factor (M=4.23, SD=0.93), followed by labor-market prospects (M=4.04) and financial accessibility (M=3.85). Parents participated in 68.2% of decisions, while 73.9% of respondents changed their opinion during the choice process. Conversations with current students (43.9%) and social media (41.1%) were the most frequently used information sources. The findings indicate that higher education choice involves the simultaneous balancing of personal interests, expected career utility and study accessibility. The paper concludes that career guidance and institutional communication should support student autonomy while providing verifiable information on costs and employment outcomes. Owing to the non-probability and territorially uneven sample, the results should be interpreted as exploratory.

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