The relationship between academic motivation levels of university students and their career decisions

The aim of this study is to evaluate the realitonship between the perceptions of academic motivation and career decision of students studying at faculties of sports sciences, phsical education and sports colleges. Another aim is to examine the difference between academic motivation and career decision level according to university, gender, age, academic grade point average, desire to pursue a career, sports status, department and class variables. In line with the purpose of the study the research method was designed in correlational survey and causal comparison model. The population of the research is the students of Istanbul State and Foundation Universities, Physical Education and Sports College and Sports Sciences Faculty; the sample consists of 960 volunteer students. The participants fulfilled personal information form, academic motivation and career decision scales. The data obtained were transferred to the SPSS 25 package program, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Walls H analyzes were used for statistical analysis, correlation and regression analyzes were applied to reveal the relationships between the scales. As a result it was determined that there was a difference in the academic motivation levels of the students according to their gender and academic careers status, and there was no difference in the level of academic motivation according to the age, class, level of sportsmanship, department and academic grade point average. According to the age of the participants, career decision in the sub-dimension of environmental factors, in the general score of career decision according to their athletic level, in the career decision according to their academic career; it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference in the conscious career dimension and the unconscious career dimension, and there was no difference in career decision according to gender, class, department, academic GPA variables. It has been determined that there is a high level of positive relationship between academic motivation and the conscious career dimensions of the career decision scale, and a moderately positive relationship between academic motivation and the general career decision score.