이공계 대학원생의 전공선택과 진로계획: 전공계열의 영향을 중심으로

Intrinsic motivations are critical factors influencing the majors and career choices of scientists and engineers, who prioritize them over extrinsic ones. However, in recent debates in Korean society over the recruitment of science and engineering majors, policy discussions tended to focus on economic rewards as a way to encourage the science and technology workforce, while neglecting their intrinsic motivations and heterogeneity within the field. This empirical study explores the core motivations for and differences between the majors and career choices of science and engineering graduate students, who tend to choose their majors based on their intellectual curiosity rather than job opportunities; a tendency that was more salient among natural science majors. In addition, consonant with their strong preference for independent research, science majors tended to consider a university professorship as their career than engineering majors did. These findings suggest that excessive emphasis on economic rewards for encouraging students in the science and engineering fields might reduce policy interests in their intrinsic motivations and even undermine them.