Future Professional Plans of Students in Higher Education

Recent researches underscore the importance of good teachers in ensuring the quality of an educational system (Mourshed & Barber, 2007; Mourshed, Chijioke & Barber, 2010). At the same time we can see that pre-service teachers have poorer academic performan ce and less interest in PhD studies than other stud ents in most European countries. This phenomenon seems to be related to the feminization of the teaching profession. For instance, obtaining a higher academ ic degree is typically a masculine career strategy; when female students and employees try to enhance their cultural capital, they tend to choose courses on the same level of education, instead of innovative doct oral training and researches