Postgraduate education which promotes the idea that members of society should always be developing their abilities plays a significant role in encouraging lifelong learning (Anderson et al.,1998). Graduate programs are regarded by many as the ideal educational opportunity since it gives students the chance to learn in-depth about a subject via thoughtful experiences. These experiences inspire thinking, help people realize who they are and what they want out of life, and give them access to methods for achievement (Johnson & Copnell, 2002; Purcell et al., 2012). As is common knowledge, undergraduate education is a crucial time for individuals to decide about their careers.

The Expectancy-Value Model (Eccles et al., 983) proposes that the two primary parts of a person's achievements are based on their choices and perseverance in completing the tasks that have been assigned to them. The success expectations and personal values of the individuals are significant preconditions of the motivation behind accomplishment in various activities (Wigfield, 1994). The individual's unique ideas about their competency in a field and belief in their ability to execute a future assignment are designated as the expectation component (Eccles et al., 1983). One example of it is believing that one will get admitted to a graduate school and successfully complete it. In this study, the researchers will examine the associations of the individual (gender and academic achievement) and relational (intention to marriage and perceived partner support) variables in explaining the valuing of graduate study from the perspective of this model.

Considering the fact that in Turkey female students are less prevalent in Turkey's graduate education programs, particularly at the master's level (Ünlü et al., 2021), it is thought that gender might be a factor to explain the valuing of graduate education. Additionally, gender disparity is a gap not just in Turkey but also in all regions of the world especially in academia (Zheng et al. 2022). This conclusion seems logical when taking into account the effects of gender roles in the process of choosing a job, as female participants imply the caregiving role of females (Ünal et al., 2018). For academic achievement, the researchers were unable to locate a prior study that looked at the relationship between academic success and valuing of graduate education. Only, according to one study (Tekin, 2022), there is a low-level association between academic achievement and the intention to pursue postgraduate study.

Taking into account the relational variables’ roles in explaining the valuing of graduate education, the intention of marriage, and perceived partner support are expected to be associated with valuing of graduate education. Since university students are in the emerging adulthood period, they tend to marry after they find a job and this situation is expected since it is a characteristic of emerging adulthood. From this perspective, it is possible for university students not to attend a graduate education to spend time on their family life. There are some studies showing that perceived psychological costs are negatively associated with graduate education intention (İlter, 2021a). Taking together the perceived cost of graduate education, the researchers speculate that the intention of marriage might be associated with the valuing of graduate education and will predict the valuing of graduate study among undergraduate students. Another variable that might be associated with the valuing of education is perceived partner support. Studies indicate that partner support has a positive role in one’s career progress (Zheng et al., 2022).

In light of the literature, the aim of this study is to determine the role of gender, academic achievement, perceived partner support, and intention of marriage in predicting the valuing of graduate education among university students. 

This study will be a quantitative study adopting a correlational design. The target sample of the current study is 800 undergraduate students meeting the eligibility criteria of (a) being 18 years old and above, (b) being in a romantic relationship for at least three months, and (c) living in Turkey. The sample will be recruited via convenient sampling, criterion sampling, and snowball sampling. After obtaining ethical permission, a demographic form in which the information on the gender and academic achievement of the students will be obtained, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Revised Form (MSPSS-R; Eker, Arkar, & Yaldız, 2001), Intention of Marriage Scale (Güzel, 2020), and Value of Education Scale (İlter, 2021b) will be utilized for the data collection. The predictor variables of the current study are gender, academic achievement, perceived partner support, and the intention of marriage while the outcome variable will be the valuing of graduate education. The data will be analyzed with hierarchical regression analyses. In the first step of the analyses, gender and academic achievement will be entered and in the second step, the perceived partner support and the intention of marriage will be entered into the model. Hence, the roles of gender, academic achievement, perceived partner support, and the intention of marriage in terms of predicting the value of graduate education will be examined. The hypotheses of the current study are as follows: (1) the students’ gender and academic achievement will predict their valuing of graduate education, and (2) perceived partner support and the intention of marriage will significantly predict students’ valuing of graduate education. The analyses will be conducted in the SPSS 2022 version.

The overall aim of the current study is to investigate the predictive roles of individual and relational variables in explaining undergraduate students’ value of graduate education. In this regard, individual variables were determined to be the gender and the academic achievement of the undergraduate students while relational variables were determined to be the perceived partner support and the intention of marriage. We expect that: 1) There will be significant gender differences in the valuing of graduate education. 2) There will be a significant and positive association between academic achievement and valuing of graduate education. 3) There will be a significant and positive association between perceived partner support and valuing of graduate education. 4) There will be a significant and negative association between the intention of marriage and valuing of graduate education. 5) Individual variables (gender and academic achievement) will significantly explain the variance in valuing of graduate education. 6) Relationship variables (perceived partner support and intention of marriage) will significantly explain the variance in valuing of graduate education above and beyond individual variables.

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