Identification of the main factors associated with the election of university degrees in the agro-food field

Abstract

The agro-food industry is considered a strategic economic sector, so the aptitude, preparation and training of its professionals becomes a key issue for any country. However, in the last 20 years, we are witnessing a decrease in the rates of young people enrolling in higher education areas of science and technology in general, and especially, in the agro-food industry degrees. Consequently, this paper aims to analyze the main factors that influence students when choosing the degrees of engineering and science but in this particular field. With this purpose, a personal survey was used on a sample of 430 students who had chosen these degrees at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Based on the collected information, a factorial analysis allowed the detection of four relevant factors in the choice of the agro-food field degree: origin of the student (place of residence and type of school); the moment of the decision in which the student chooses the future degree (during or after high school, before or after EBAU), the previous academic itinerary (technological, health, social sciences or arts); and their personal motivations (vocational, family tradition, affinity or by discard). This research aims to clarify the factors that influence the choice of this specific higher education degree in order to help academic counselors and researchers, as well as psycho-pedagogues to support their function.