Factors Influencing the Students' Choice of Accounting as a Major: The Case of X University in United Arab Emirates
This study tried to examine the factors that influence students' choice of accounting at X Private University. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data for the five hypotheses which were tested in this study related to the factors of reputation of the university or college, personal interests, job prospect, family members and peers, and media. The findings of the study revealed that personal interests, personality, job prospect, reputation of the university and media did not have a significant influence on the students' choice of accounting as a major. On the other hand, data analysis shows thatfamily members and peers, significantly related to the students' choice of accounting as a major. In other words, hypotheses H1, H2, H3, and H5 are rejected, whereas hypothesis H4 is accepted. This research contributes to literature by identifying the relationship between the independent variables (reputation of the university, personal interests, job prospect, family members and peers, and media) and the dependent variable (student's choice of accounting as a major) and the results of the study give valuable information to university's management to know how they can influence families to increase the number of students enrolling in such university, especially accounting students. This research also tested a new variable, which is reputation of the university a variable that is expected to influence students' choices.