University study preferences and value targets of grammar school students in Serbia

When it comes to the factors that influence professional commitment of students, psychology literature mainly states the role of school, peers, parents, material and social factors, and less so personality features, aims, expectations, personal and social values. This paper deals with the preference of personal and social values viewed as targets in the context of choosing a university department and, with it, future profession. Two lists were used - 18 personal and 18 social values. The sample included 497 last-year-grammar-school students. The research was conducted in school conditions in Belgrade and several cities in Serbia. The results show that the majority of students (55%) would opt for social-humanistic and medical-biological and less for technical and natural sciences. It turned out that gender and the type of high school courses are significant variables linked with the selection of studies and faculties, while other socio-demographic variables were not significant. The results also show that there are significant differences in the levels of acceptance of some values while, viewed globally, greater importance is given to personal than social values, which justifies the initial idea of the author that personal and social values should be examined separately because they affect professional commitment of high school students differently.