Barriers Affecting the Level of Agricultural Student's Entrepreneurial Skills, University of Tehran, Iran

The purpose of this research was to study the barriers affecting the level of students’ entrepreneurial skills. The statistical population of the research consisted of all postgraduate students of agricultural majors at the University College of Agricultural and Natural Resources in the University of Tehran (N= 1188). According to the Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample size of 291 students was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Researcher- made questionnaire was used to collect data. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. Construct validity and composite reliability of the research instrument were tested by estimating the measurement model and they were satisfactory after making necessary corrections. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Results showed that, five factors including: lack of entrepreneurial educational content, communicative- informational weakness, weakness of practical and innovative skills, motivational issues and weak planning had significant negative effect on the level of students’ entrepreneurial skills, explaining 72 percent the probability of its variances. Also, Results indicated that structure of the research model was confirmed based on the model fit indices and theoretical framework of the research was consistent with reality.