Field of Study as a Predictor of Entrepreneurial Interest among Final Year Students of Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

This study examines how field of study influence entrepreneurial interest among final year students of tertiary institutions with reference to Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo. Three research questions and four research hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. A descriptive research design was adopted for this study and a total of sample size of two hundred and ninety (290) selected using systematic sampling technique was be used for this study. A self-designed questionnaire titled ‘Field of Study as a Predictor of Entrepreneurial Interest Questionnaire (FSPEIQ) formulated according to the research questions by the researcher was used as the main research tool. The instrument used was subjected to face and content validation by experts in entrepreneurship and Cronbach Alpha value of 0.90 based on standardised items was obtained to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The data gathered were analysed using descriptive statistics of simple frequency count and percentage for the demographic information, mean and standard deviation was used to analysed the research questions while t-test was used to analysed the formulated research hypotheses. The study revealed that final year students wish to become entrepreneurs after graduation but some factors contribute to making the wish of becoming an entrepreneur a reality and these factors include family support, self-realization, social environmental factor, individual psychological factor and ambition for freedom influence entrepreneurial interest of students. All the hypotheses tested were rejected as all the variables except family type determines the entrepreneurial interest of students. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that entrepreneurship education curriculum should always be improved so that it is able to