Students’ choices in higher education occupy a wide spectrum in recent academic and policy discussions. However, there has been little research on how government discourses on the knowledge-based economy shape, transform or influence students’ choices at a micro-level. This paper uses a governmentality framework to link the ways in which the ‘conduct of conduct’ operates through the episteme, techne and ethos of government. The paper presents findings from a large-scale survey in three major higher education institutions in Ireland, together with the thematic analysis of students’ comments on an open-ended question. The findings show that students invest heavily in more advanced HE qualification in order to perform well in the competition for jobs. However, the study also demonstrates that students are aware of the limitations in this human capital framework but not due to them making bad choices but to the lack of control individuals have in affecting the labour market.

在最近的学术和政策讨论中，学生在高等教育中的选择占据了广泛的范围。然而，关于政府关于知识经济的话语如何在微观层面塑造、转变或影响学生选择的研究很少。本文使用治理框架，通过政府的认识、技术和精神将“行为行为”的运作方式联系起来。本文介绍了爱尔兰三所主要高等教育机构的大规模调查结果，以及对学生对一个开放式问题的评论的主题分析。调查结果表明，学生为了在就业竞争中表现出色，大量投资于更高级的高等教育学历。然而，