an analysis of the factors affecting students' interest in entrepreneurship as perceived by graduates of agricultural scientific-applied higher education centers of iran

the main purpose of this study is to find out the factors affecting entrepreneurship strengthening tendencies in student of iran’s agricultural scientific-applied higher education centers. the research is an applied type in which descriptive method has been employed. the tool for data collection was questionnaire the reliability of which was 85%. population of the research consisted of 1954 graduates of iranian agricultural scientific-applied higher education centers in 2004, 340 of whom were selected as a sample through stratified sampling. the data were analyzed in two descriptive and inferential parts through spss software. mean age of these graduates participants is 26 years. 58.2% are among the free quota while the remainders are government employees. 24.3% of the free quota graduates and 41.4% of the employee quota graduated with b.s. degrees and the rest graduated in an associate degree namely a pre-b.sc. degree. the results also show that only 15% of the total graduates are in private business and are self-employed, as compared with 62.9% who are employees. according to the results obtained from factor analysis, factors affecting the graduates' interest in entrepreneurship can be divided into 7 factors of: educational methods, educational contents, equipment & facilities, individual factors, trainers' skills, students' features, and environmental factors. step by step regression shows that of the above-mentioned factors, environmental one has not entered the equation and the other 6 factors could specify 62.1% of changes of the dependent variable of the research, whereas according to regression analysis, trainers' skills constituted the most important factor affecting graduates' interest in entrepreneurship.