Abstract
The purpose of this research is to explore the reasons, or motivations, for why people who have a degree pursue advanced study in the Leadership and Educational Policy (LEP) program. In general, what are the reasons why people who have a degree pursue a graduate degree? Specific questions to be addressed include: 1) what are the personal factors that may influence the choice to pursue a graduate degree, 2) what are the economic factors that may influence the choice to pursue a graduate degree, 3) what is the relationship between personal and economic factors that may influence the choice to pursue a graduate degree, and 4) what are some of the other challenges that respondents encounter in pursuing a graduate degree in higher education at this time? Sources of Data The researcher collected data from current graduate students in the LEP program. The students have been selected from two current LEP cohorts. A sample of two cohorts from the LEP Program was selected and surveys were administered to participants in a classroom setting and by email. The surveys contained 28 questions in a Likert-scale format exploring the motivations among college graduates for choosing to pursue an advanced degree in the field of higher education. The questions were designed to help the researcher understand the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, or reasons, for choosing to pursue a graduate degree in higher education leadership. Conclusions Reached Overall, the results of the researcher’s data analysis indicated that a majority of respondents were intrinsically motivated to pursue an advanced degree in the field of higher education leadership. Based on the findings, it appears that the researcher’s hypothesis that extrinsic motivators would be primarily responsible for a college graduates choice to pursue an advanced degree in higher education leadership rather than intrinsic motivators was incorrect; however, the number of responses indicating intrinsic and extrinsic responses was very close. Of the several questions asking about challenges faced while pursuing a graduate degree, only two challenges were identified as significant; specifically, respondents indicated that their job responsibilities are extremely time consuming and take time away from their academic work and that some of the challenges were due to their family responsibilities getting in the way of working on their degrees.