On the Necessity of University Study as a Socio-Cultural Institution

At first, consumption was considered as a purely economic concept, however "Max Weber" defined consumption as a process including different social and cultural actions, which is not only caused by economic factors, but also expresses the differences between social groups. Later sociologists like " Pierre Bourdieu and Jean Baudrillard specifically addressed the category of cultural consumption. At the theoretical level, cultural consumption means the acceptance and use of various products and symbols of the cultural system, and it determines the type of tendency and taste of consumers. This article examines cultural consumption among students of public universities (under the coverage of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology).

According to Cultural consumption indicators mentioned above a survey was conducted. The statistical population of this survey is 651,524 people, taking into account the dispersion and variance of the statistical population among different universities and following the sampling rules according to the principle of proportion and distribution of study fields, a questionnaire was completed from 1500 people in the studied universities.

  The descriptive results of the findings show that a total of 51% have low and very low levels, 22% have high and very high levels, and 27% have moderate (sometimes) cultural consumption in different dimensions. According to the obtained average (2.50 in the range of 1 to 5), it can be said that the amount of cultural consumption by students is on average decreasing. The comparison according to educational levels shows that the highest amount of cultural consumption is among undergraduate (2.57), doctoral (2.53) and then master's students (2.40), respectively. According to the findings of the present research, it can be said that despite spending part of the students' free time on social networks and watching movies and listening to music, attending to religious teachings and rituals (participating in mosque ceremonies, holy shrines, visiting religious places, etc.) among the relative majority of students, it is considered as one of the forms of spending time in terms of cultural consumption

The significant suggestion of the current research is to carry out cultural and social policy and planning by related organizations with the aim of diversifying the leisure time of the target group according to the country's educational patterns; Because as long as cultural planning is done according to the priorities, needs and demands of the target community and taking into account cultural policies and Iranian and Islamic values, alienation among students and young people will be reduced and the possibility of entering culture through a discourse gap will be reduced.