Investigating employment and entrepreneurship barriers in higher education according to students of complementary program satsaveh Branch of Islamic Azad University

The growing course of unemployment among college and universitygraduates can bedue to different factors including non-correspondence of academic education to demands of the labor market, knowledge-oriented approach in the content and methods used in higher education programs and the prevailing culture in the society expecting employment of university graduates in the public sector as their inevitable occupational destiny. The above situation necessitates study and exploration of the existing problems in the higher education system for adoptingthe right entrepreneurship strategy. Considering the importance of the issue, present research through a survey intends to “identify and analyze entrepreneurship barriers in the higher education system”. The research statistical population includes students of master programs fromvarious disciplines currently studying at faculties of Islamic Azad University, Saveh Branch in the academic year of 2011–2012. Of a total number of 2361 students as the statistical population using stratified sampling with proportional allocation 300 students were selected as the sample. Data gathering tool in this research was a researcher-made questionnaire and the understudy students by responding to it supplied the major part of the research findings. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS (version 18). Research results in the section Descriptive Findings describe individual variables and study the key factors in choice of discipline, study follow-up and prioritization of graduates employment barriers, and entrepreneurship problems and obstacles in the higher education. In the section Inferential Statistics, using correlation analysis, mean comparison tests and Kruskal-Wallis Non-Parametric Test the research hypotheses were examined.

The obtained results indicated a significant association between students’ age and their attitude to impact of university on people's entrepreneurship. However, no significant relationship was found between other independent variables and the dependent variable. The obtained finding from mean comparison indicated absence of any significant difference in attitude of different groups of students in terms of gender, marital state, employment, academic discipline and place of study.