Youths’ reasoning about higher education in Macao

Abstract

Statistics still show an upward trend for Macao students registering at higher education institutions. However, when higher education is not necessary for job-hunting, what makes Macao youth still desire higher education? The current, discovery-oriented qualitative study explored the perceptions about and reasons for higher education amongst a group of Chinese youth in Macao. Six focus group interviews were conducted with participants at a local university, and the transcripts analysed through in-depth thematic analysis. Themes corresponding to social networking, normative reasoning and career prospects emerged, and the fi ndings suggest that youths might not perceive higher education as a way of knowledge acquisition, but rather see university life as an opportunity to expand guanxi in their planning for their future careers. The outcomes have implications for future research exploring social goals and social-cultural values of tertiary education amongst Chinese youth.