Studying on the educational needs of agricultural students about entrepreneurship (case study on faculty of agriculture Bu-Ali Sina and Kurdistan universities)

The purpose of this research was to assess the educational needs of agricultural students about entrepreneurship. The present applied research is a descriptive which has done with a surveying method. The statistical population of this study was the senior students of all agricultural fields at Hamedan and Kurdistan Universities in 2017. Sampling was census method (n = 157). In order to study the educational needs of the students about entrepreneurship education, the common method of need assessment has been used, namely, comparing existing and desirable status in three levels of knowledge, attitude, and skill. The data gathering tool was a structured questionnaire consisting of four sections of student's individual information, knowledge needs in entrepreneurship, attitude and skills requirements in entrepreneurship and business establishment. Content validity of the questions was approved by a number of agricultural experts and its reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which was more than 0.8 for all three levels of knowledge, attitude, and skill. After collecting data and coding, SPSS18 software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the highest priorities of the knowledge needs of agricultural students were familiarity with the rules and regulations for setting up a new business, the recognition of different information sources for the formulation of a business plan and familiarity with practical entrepreneurship issues. In analyzing the attitude needs of the students the highest ranks were about entrepreneurship knowledge and entrepreneurship meeting with participation of entrepreneurs. In terms of skills needs, the highest priority was related to the ability to raise funds and the ability to access banking facilities.