Entrepreneurial Orientation of Graduate Students in the University of Ibadan, South-West, Nigeria

Academic Paper from the year 2014 in the subject Sociology - Work, Profession, Education, Organisation, grade: 5.0 (A), University of Ibadan, language: English, abstract: Graduate unemployment in Nigeria is a chief cause of many social problems such as fraud, armed robbery and so on. Among the several reasons social researchers have listed as contributing factors to graduate unemployment, a lack of comprehensive curricula in the higher institutions has been pin-pointed to be crucial to the malaise of graduate unemployment. Entrepreneurship education if imbibed in the curricula of tertiary institutions would instill entrepreneurial behavior in students and graduates, which would further encourage graduates to become self-reliant and employers of labor. This study examined the levels of entrepreneurship orientation among graduate students in the University of Ibadan. The study made use of theories of planned behaviour and creativity and innovation theories. The sample was made up of 270 graduate students randomly drawn from six faculties of the University of Ibadan. Qualitative and quantitative data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaires and in-depth oral interviews. The result showed that majority of the respondents (78%) had never been exposed to entrepreneurship education upon the completion of their first degree. More than half of the respondents (55.6%) rated their level of entrepreneurial orientation as high, 31.4% rated it as moderate and the remaining 13.0% rated it as low. The paper asserts that graduate students are willing to become entrepreneurs if exposed to active entrepreneurship education - as they are cognizant of the benefits of being self-reliant and independent of the labor market.