Students look forward to take a better job and career goals through college education. Until
recently, however, only one of the two recent college graduates is to succeed in employment. The
Korean government has supported institutions of higher education in a variety of ways to deal with
such an unexpectedly low employment rate, but the rate remains unchanged over time. Despite the
consistent overall rate, the substantial differences in employment rates by gender, academic major,
and institution exist.
Using the national data of 5,503 junior and senior students at 51 four-year universities, this
study investigates the collegiate influences on students’ career competency development. The
modified Social Cognitive Career Theory guided this study and Hierarchical Linear Modeling was
used as a primary analytical method. The study found that the extent to which students develop
their career competency through college education was varied across four-year universities with
regard to their satisfaction for career support services and institutional selectivity. Further, there are
the interaction effects between institutional features and student-level variables. Based on the
findings of this study, we suggested a differential strategy by institutional type as a more effective
approach to enhance career competency of their students.