Higher education and career aspirations among secondary school students in Southern Ethiopia

The objective of the present research was to identify the level of aspiration of secondary school students to join higher education and their career preferences. Quantitative data were collected from secondary school students in Wolaita Sodo town, Southern Ethiopia. The results have shown that students have high aspiration to join higher education institutions. While most students prefer to join public higher education institutions, larger number of students disclosed their interest to join higher education institutions located in/nearer to their locality. Furthermore, having the finding that most students choose to be remembered for being an outstanding student in the school added to increased consideration of reaching at the highest level of education as the most preferred avenue to upward social mobility, we found a higher place of academic achievement in the value system of high school students in the study area. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.