0bjectives

The research seeks to determine:

1. The nature, extent and effect of psychological influences on choices,

including a desire to achieve personal goals or meet individual
needs.
2. The nature, extent and effect of sociological influences on
choices, including background, personal and social expectations,
previous educational experience and social role.
3. The nature and influence of individual perceptions of courses,
institutions and subject, and how these relate to self-perception and
concept of self.
4. The influence on choice of a number of variables such as age,
gender, ethnicity and social class.
5. The role and possible influence of significant others on choice,
such as advice and guidance workers, peers, relatives and
employers.
6. The nature and extent of possible influences on choice of
available provision, institutional advertising and marketing.
7. The nature and extent of possible influences on choice of mode of
study, teaching methods and type of course.
8. How and to what extent influencing factors change as adults re-
enter and progress through their chosen route.

Basic research or fundamental research (sometimes pure research)

is research carried out to increase understanding of fundamental
principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate
commercial benefits: basic research can be thought of as arising out
of curiosity. However, in the long term it is the basis for many commercial
products and applied research. Basic research is mainly carried out by
universities.

Basic research advances fundamental knowledge about the human world.

It focuses on refuting or supporting theories that explain how this world
operates, what makes things happen, why social relations are a certain
way, and why society changes. Basic research is the source of most new
scientific ideas and ways of thinking about the world. It can be
exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory; however, explanatory research is
the most common. Basic research generates new ideas, principles and
theories, which may not be immediately utilized; though are the
foundations of modern progress and development in different fields.
Today's computers could not exist without the pure research in
mathematics conducted over a century ago, for which there was no
known practical application at that time. Basic research rarely helps
practitioners directly with their everyday concerns. Nevertheless, it
stimulates new ways of thinking about deviance that have the potential to
revolutionize and dramatically improve how practitioners deal with a
problem. A new idea or fundamental knowledge is not generated only by
basic research can build new knowledge. Nonetheless, basic research is
essential for nourishing the expansion of knowledge. Researchers at the
center of the scientific community conduct most of the basic research.