How Perceived Career Advising Initiates Career Orientation of UAS Undergraduates in China: Career Exploration as a Mediator

In the context of universal higher education and labor market polarization, undergraduates in universities of applied sciences (UAS) face growing challenges in forming career orientation. Drawing on data from a UAS in China (N = 3138), this study examines how perceived career advising influences students’ career orientation. Three key findings emerge: (1) Only perceived perspective advising (PPA) exhibits significant and direct effects on career orientation, underscoring the developmental value of structured guidance. In contrast, perceived emotional advising (PEA) and perceived growth advising (PGA) show no direct effect. (2) Both PPA and PGA are positively associated with career exploration, whereas PEA exhibits a negative association. This suggests that when advising interactions are overly affective, they inadvertently reduce students’ initiative to explore. (3) Career exploration fully mediates the effects of PEA and PGA, while it partially mediates the effect of PPA. This reflects that different types of career advising influence career orientation through distinct mechanisms, with PEA and PGA relying more heavily on exploratory engagement. The cultural and educational context in China shapes how students respond to different types of career advising. This study offers theoretical and practical insights for building career advising systems to actively foster students’ autonomous, cognitively engaged exploration processes.