Studying and comparing student’s entrepreneurship spirit of students of Payame Noor University and University of Applied Science and Technology in Mashhad: (a comparative research)

This comparative research aimed at studying and measuring the degree of entrepreneurship spirit of Payame Noor University (PNU) students with that of the University of Applied Science and Technology (UAST) students in Mashhad. 250 students from PNU and 230 students from the UAST were randomly selected as the sample. The data was collected using a two-part questionnaire; the first part had demographic questions and the second part included eight components of the entrepreneurial spirit that was prepared in the form of a Likert spectrum. The questionnaire was based on the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and its reliability was according to the experts and their viewpoints. The results showed that the average entrepreneurial spirit of the total sample population was 3.23 and the standard deviation was 40.0 .It revealed that among the categories of entrepreneurship spirit, need for achievement had the highest mean while independence had the lowest. Also, the average student entrepreneurship spirit of Payame Noor University was 3.6 and the Applied Science level was 3.18. A T-test on the categories showed that all components except for internal control, tolerance of ambiguity, and risk-taking had a significant difference. The entrepreneurship spirit of the UAST students was higher than the PNU students (mean 3.18 vs. 3.6), and that of the male students was also higher than the females.