The Importance of values for success in future careers: Students’ perspective

There are two sets of data; - Longitudinal data from a survey of 1200 students over 4 years (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), at one Australian university campus at the start of the second semester. - A 2007 snapshot from a survey of 1100 students at four different universities in one capital city in Australia. The instrument used was Michael Maccoby’s (1976) Head and Heart survey of character traits with the addition of an extra question. A three point Likert Scale was used to rate values as very important, somewhat important or not important. The students came from the disciplines of Arts and Sciences, Education, Management and Commerce, Health Sciences, Social and Culture and IT. The results were broken down into age, year of studies, specialisation of study, where they completed their qualifications (Australia or overseas), the qualification of the parents and number of siblings. The data was analysed using SPSS.