Abstract:
Little is known about why students choose to enrol in post-graduate studies. Going through a Ph.D. degree is often seen as a risky decision. This study offers responses' analysis of two groups; the first consists of 274 graduate students enrolled in various engineering programmes in Lebanon and the second consists of 187 working engineers. Both groups of participants completed a survey investigating the factors that may impact on their decision to pursue a Ph.D. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Likert-scaled items aimed to identify the attitudinal and normative factors leading to the intention of enrolling in Ph.D. An independent t-test revealed no significance between students and engineers' intention.Anexploratory factor analysis provided four factors: professional attitude, social attitude, financial attitude and subjective norm. Using multiple regression technique, the professional attitude appeared to be the main contributor to students' and engineers' intention. The findings are discussed and recommendations for future studies are offered. Copyright © 2011 TEMPUS Publications.