Students' motivations for entering the medical degree course at the University of Malta

Abstract

Choosing a course at University is difficult, and the influences other people make in our lives is hard to avoid. This study attempts to explore the various motivations students have when choosing an MD course at the University of Malta. Questionnaires were distributed to students in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years. At the same time interviews were done to some of their lecturers to gain more insight into students' motivations for an MD course at the University of Malta. In this study one can see that the family has a strong influence in the students' choice when facing a decision like entering a course at University level. This study also indicates that a large percentage of students who enter a Medical Degree course at the University of Malta have attended Church schools at both secondary and sixth form level. Students have also shown in this study that money was not a major issue when they chose this course. The fact that they can help other people by their profession and the fact that people put trust in them were of a much greater importance. It also resulted that having a family member already in the medical field was a positive influence for these students to choose the MD course. On the other hand male and female gender was not an issue since there were approximately the same number of students. The project concludes with a number of recommendations for youth workers in schools where they can give some advice to the adolescent pupils. A youth worker who works in a school can create a healthy relationship with students along the years, and therefore can be of major help when students are faced with important and difficult choices like choosing a course at University.