Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
GLOBETSonline: International Conference on Education, Technology and Science, 5 - 06 Haziran 2020, ss.295-301
This research aimed to find out the effect of research project participation on the
students’ choice of their professional area. The participants of the study comprised 64
tertiary level students who participated in TUBITAK Research Projects Competitions
and received the awards of 1st, 2nd, 3rd best projects, Young Researcher Award, or
Incentive Award when they were students at High School between the years of 2009-
2013. Out of 64 participants, 26 were male and 38 female. In the study, the demographic
features such as gender, school type, foreign language skills, and the influence of project
participation on the participants’ choice of professional field were analyzed. For this
purpose, a structured questionnaire developed by Avcı, Özenir and Yücel (2016) was
utilized with some minor changes. The questionnaire was composed of 8 items about
foreign language skills, preference of higher education, the relationship between the
project topics and the higher education program they prefer, their desire to be
researchers in career plans, and the contribution of the project process on their
individual and social development. The data obtained from the research were defined
via frequency and percentage. It was understood that at the top of the universities
preferred by students were Hacettepe University (21.88%), Istanbul University (9.38%),
Gazi University (7.81%), Bilkent University (6.25%) and universities out of Turkey
(1.56%). It was observed that 31.03% of them preferred private universities and 68.97%
preferred public universities. It was also recorded that 67.2% of the students preferred
Health Sciences, 8.3% Natural Sciences, and 7.9% Social Sciences. In addition, it was
determined that all of the students were proficient in English, 31.25% of them spoke two
languages and 6.25% spoke three languages.
Keywords: TUBITAK; Research Projects; Project Competition; Project Awards;
Professional Fields