Aspirations of Farm Science Students in Odisha: A Comparative Analysis across Agricultural Disciplines
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Keywords:
Economic aspiration, Farm science students, job aspirations, self-aspiration, socio-economic aspiration.Abstract
Designing successful educational initiatives and policy interventions requires an understanding of these goals. 160 undergraduate students from the fields of agriculture, veterinary science, fisheries science and agricultural engineering participated in the current study at Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Odisha during 2025. The study had five main aspects of aspirations: economic, socioeconomic, self-employment, job and education. The results showed that most students in all subjects had moderate aspirational levels. Fisheries students had medium levels of educational aspirations, followed by veterinary science (65.00%), agriculture (60.00%) and agricultural engineering (57.50%). Eighty percent of veterinary science students and about sixty-five percent of students from the other disciplines expressed a medium level of enthusiasm for job. Seventy percent of students in agriculture and fisheries, sixty-seven percent in veterinary science and twenty-eight percent in agricultural engineering expressed a moderate desire to work for themselves. Students studying agriculture had the highest socioeconomic aspirations (92.50%), followed by fisheries (75.00%), veterinary science (67.50%) and agricultural engineering (65.00%). The study reveals significant differences in aspiration levels among students in various farm science fields and offers insightful information to help politicians and educational institutions create plans that promote students' professional and entrepreneurial development.
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