Factors Affecting the Interest and Educational Aptitude of Agricultural Students in Iran

While interest and educational aptitude are the main factors for academic achievement, every year many students are entering agricultural higher education system and different majors that do not fit their interest and talent. This paper aimed to assess the interest and educational aptitude of agricultural students and related influencing factors. The survey method was used and 1720 agricultural students in different agricultural colleges were selected and investigated based on systematic random sampling. Descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance and regression were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that about 12 percent of the students have selected agricultural majors as their first to fifth priority, while, they were selecting majors at the universities entrance examination. Also, their interest to chosen major has been improved significantly after being educated at the university. Factors affecting the promotion of students’ interest are due to the internal environment of the university at the first, labor market at the second and family at the third level. Results, also, indicated that agricultural students have relatively good educational aptitude while female students have more educational aptitude than male students. The main determinants of the students’ educational aptitude are type of high school diploma and students’ mother educational level respectively.