What you study at university is unlikely to be what you end up doing as a career, if a new research study by YouGov is any guide. It found that 52% of Thai graduates work in jobs unrelated to their degrees. The remaining 48% work in jobs related to their degrees.
This isn't the same across all degrees, however. Those who studied health and welfare are much more likely (76%) to end up working in a field relevant to what they studied, compared with just 33% for those who studied humanities.
Other factors also seem to influence whether someone moves into a job linked to their degree. Those who studied abroad -- albeit only 3% of total respondents -- are more likely than those who studied locally (97%) to work in jobs related to their degree (66% vs 48%). Older Thais (aged 45 to 54) are also more likely than their younger compatriots (aged 25 to 34) to work in jobs relevant to their degree (56% vs 48%).
Overall, 66% of Thai respondents say they find their degrees "very useful". Thirty percent find them somewhat useful, and the remaining 3% find them useless. Those who studied health and welfare are more likely to think of their degrees as very useful compared with those who studied marketing and advertising (82% vs 59%).
The results were based on responses from 1,233 Thai graduates surveyed by YouGov, an international market research agency.
When choosing a degree, one-third (34%) made the decision on choosing their field of study on their own. The rest were influenced by their parents (31%), friends (24%) and teachers (15%).
The vast majority (97%) of Thai graduates agree that having a university degree is important. Assuming the position of an employer, 16% would be unwilling to hire someone without a university degree. Just under half (46%) would be willing to do so, and the remaining two in five (38%) think it makes no difference.
"For those currently figuring out which field of study to go into, it could be comforting to know that it might be unrelated to one's future career," said Jake Gammon, head of Omnibus Asia Pacific at YouGov Omnibus. "No matter what field of study, almost all graduates agree that a university degree is important, and a significant percentage would be unwilling to hire someone without one."
