The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the changing needs of PhD or FPM program. The focus of its overview will extend to an exploration of the needs and demands of modern PhD or FPM programs. One of the first dimensions of this exploration is the nature of Generation Y students pursuing their PhD or FPM programs. One of the first insights this chapter offers is that this generation merges their knowledge requirements, consumption patterns, and social interactions. This merging happens in the context of digital devices and platforms for Generation Y. This merging is inclusive of their educational requirements. When they wish to pursue their educational goals, they seek the same criteria that they evaluate their either requirements on. These criteria are functionality, ease of access and aesthetics. Going on, the denizens of Generation Y seek to contribute as much on digital platforms as much as they receive. In the context of PhD or FPM programs, the students of Generation Y prefer to communicate with other users, experts, and influencers.
TopMeaning And Characteristics Of Generation Y
Generation Y is the group of people that are born in the similar time period (Palese et al., 2006). These people may have similar culture but have unique behaviour which is developed from experiences. There are many neurological studies that have found that the human brain reacts distinctively with the stimuli they are exposed to (Greenberg & Tobach, 1997). These unique reactions happened because the experiences of the individuals were driven by the social and cultural dimensions. These dimensions developed the preferences and liking among the Generation. Thus, the marketing approaches have to comprehend these dimensions and develop the relationship with the experiences of the individuals (Lerner, 2006). Conventionally, marketers segmented by date of birth which fell flat. This is because Generation works with the experiences which are developed from the socio-cultural elements. These experiences are every important for Generation Y.
Historically, the categorization of Generations was carried out by using date of birth for each of cohorts; silent Generation (1925-1945), baby boomers (1946-1960), Generation X (1961-1981) and Generation Y who are born after 1981. This Generation is born in between 1981-1999. The categorization of the cohorts was based on their life events as well (Zemke et al., 1999). There are even sub-cohorts within these Generations categorization. Thus, Generation Y has differences among the same cohorts. They are always exposed to the technology and cognition, emotional and social elements playing a significant role in terms of their orientations (Immordino-Yang et al., 2012). This technology is used primarily for interactions, entertainment and controlling emotions. These people have made advances in the instant communication, social networking and globalization (Park and Gursoy, 2012). The social networking via social media has also affected their buying behaviour. These people have received customized and personalized products and services (Ansari and Mela, 2003; Berry et al., 2010). Importantly, the extensive social media usage has developed these traits; “want it all” and “want it now”, work life balance, interesting work and contribution to society (Ng et al., 2010).