In this paper, we analyze the students' preferences regarding the institution (university or technological institute) for studying agriculture. Our focus is on the departments of higher or lower preferences and our aim is to study the influence on these preferences of factors as department's geographical position or its age. Using descriptive statistic and multivariate data analysis methods, we comment on the distribution of preferences of high school graduates for the year 2007 until 2014 and the correlations with the variables mentioned. Our goal is to record the most popular university department as well as the department which failed to attract sufficient number of students. We hope our conclusions will be useful for planning the future of these departments.
1 Introduction
The agriculture sector is an important part of Greek economy
In the graph we present how many people over 15 years old were employed in agriculture from 2001 until 2014 in Greece. After 2004, about 100 thousands have left agriculture. In 2014, 480.400 persons older than 15 years were active in agriculture. This number was almost the same in years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The percentage of people in agriculture of the total working people has arisen after
2009. In 2014 the percentage was 13,6%. As people in agriculture decreased and
unemployment increased in the other sectors, a cause of economic crisis (after 2009),
the percentage of people employed in agriculture mounted
NUMBER OF EMPLOYED (THAOUSANDS) 700 650 600 550 500 450 400 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
In table 1, it becomes evident that only 1 out of 4 workers in agriculture have completed secondary education, while 18% have completed 9 years of primary education and 47,3% have completed the 6 years of primary education. Only a percentage of 4% of workers in agriculture have graduated from tertiary education.
In recent years a lot of young people have decided to acquire agriculture-related education in order to work in agriculture. Some of them want to be expert in agriculture and help the others by introducing to them new technological methods. In major Greek cities (Athens, Thessaloniki) there are agricultural departments in universities and in technological institutes. There are also agricultural departments in other smaller towns.
We use data of candidate students in these departments from year 2007 until 2014. Our objects in this paper are to: • Analyse the demand of such field of education over the last few years. • Present the preferences of first-year students.
• Find the most popular Greek agriculture departments.
Check if economic crisis has changed candidates’ preference in agriculture education. 2 Greek Agriculture Education
The Greek tertiary education is divided in two parallel sectors, Universities and
Technological Institutes
After the exams, candidates submit their preference for faculty. If they have good ranking in the exams, they manage to enter the department of their first preferences, if there are available places in this department. If there are no places available they may be admitted to another department of their next preference.
There are 13 agricultural departments at Universities and 20 at Technological Institutes. The candidate numbers are shown in figure 2 (first graph for University departments in other towns and second for University departments in Athens). It becomes evident that the number of candidates has increased after 2011 in every agriculture department. Especially candidate numbers have increased in the department (code 273) of Thessaloniki reaching 8000 candidates. 9050 273 8050 273 456732000000555555000000 212272172372473553360 212272172372473553360 212272172372473553360 212271272473553360 212271272473553360 1050 50
NUMBER OF CANDIDATES 717617 515550
551 718 546 555532
The number of first-year students is determined by the government. In figures 4 and 5 the numbers of first- year students in University departments and Technology Institute departments are depicted. The great increase in all departments in 2014 is clearly perceived. 272475360 212271 of candidates per year
353 15,0% 212273 353 212271 275 271274 275 360 273 274
However, for the successful first year students, the percentage of those who expressed preference (first until sixth) was from 60% to 80% in 2014. Only three university departments (code 273-Thessaloniki, code 212-Orestiada, code 271Agrinio) have a percentage of 25%-35% satisfaction of first year students.
The percentage of first - year students who had expressed preference (first until sixth) for the departments of Technological Education Institutes is about 30%-50% in 2014. Only three departments (code 716-Athens, code 717- Thessaloniki, code 758Crete) have a percentage of 60%-80% satisfaction of first year students. 5 Influence of Economic Crisis in Agriculture Education
The ratio (percentage) of first preferences (1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th) of first year students divided by the total number of first year students gives us the “satisfaction” percentage of first year students. This average “satisfaction” is shown in the table 2 per year. There is significant difference among years as we can conclude by analysis of variance (table 3).
In 2014 and 2007 the departments with the greatest satisfaction percentages are shown in the table 4. In 2014, the satisfaction is higher in more departments than 2007. In 2014 and 2007, the departments with the highest candidate numbers are shown in table 5. In 2014, the numbers are almost double than 2007. The departments with the highest candidate numbers are departments of Technology Education Institutes. The only exception is the Agriculture University Department of Thessaloniki.
Subset for alpha = 0.05
Square 0,139 0,028 1 34,96% 37,48% 43,23% 0,065
F 5,018 Sig.
0,001 2 43,23% 46,99% 51,01% 0,083 Code 328
(univ) 716
(tei) 717
(tei) 273
(univ) 274
(univ) 323
(univ) 325
(univ) 353
(univ) Code 759
(tei) 761
(tei) 273
(univ) 762
(tei) 717
(tei) 716
(tei) 757
(tei) 557 (tei) 2007 name
2007 name
70% 60% 55% 50% 50% candidates 4835 4339 4134 3898 3715
In Greece, the agriculture sector is a big part of economy. A percentage 13,6% of all employed people older than 15 years old work in agriculture. The percentage of people in agriculture of all employed people has increased after 2009 when economic crisis began. In recent years, many young people decided to study in schools relevant to agriculture in order to work in agriculture. We have concluded that the candidates’ numbers have doubled for some agriculture departments of tertiary education. The departments with the highest candidate numbers are the departments of Technological Education Institutes.
The number of first year students is decided by the government. There was a great increase in 2014 in all departments. The percentage of candidates who succeed in the exams and enter agriculture university departments is about 5%. The percentage of candidates who have chosen the university departments in first, second or third order of preference is about 10% -15%.
For the successful first year students, the percentage of those who had stated preference (first until sixth) was from 60% to 80% in 2014 for University departments. For the departments of Technological Education Institutes this percentage was from 30% to 50% in 2014. The departments with the greatest satisfaction percentages have changed from 2007 until 2014.
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