Identification and Assessment of Factors Affecting the Social Demand in Higher Education (Case Study: Graduate Students Campus of Technical Colleges of Tehran University)

The aim of this paper is identification and assessment of factors affecting the social demand in higher education among technical college’s students at Tehran University and mixed method is applied. In qualitative phase, the statistical population included Experts and Professors of Higher Education that 8 people were profoundly interviewed. In quantitative phase, the population consisted of 3527 students from which 346 people were randomly selected by Cochran formula. Information was collected by a questionnaire which contains 24 questions that experts in higher education confirmed its validity. The reliability of the questionnaire was also calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 92%. According to findings obtained from qualitative phase, factors affecting the social demand in higher education are identified in four dimensions: individual and family, academic, economic and culture and social. Results of t-test indicated that all identified factors were evaluated Desirable by students. Furthermore, Freedman test’s results showed that economic factors have the most important and cultural and social factors also have least important.