Entrepreneurial Intentions among Palestinian Graduates: The Role of University Education رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship has been one of the most important and argumentative topics among policymakers in higher education as the best solution for more likely employed graduates. Unemployment rates among Palestinian university graduates have reached an alarming level, challenging higher educational institutions for better teaching and learning methods and policymakers for corrective and creative solutions and strategies. Entrepreneurship is frequently proposed as the solution and hence socio-economic elevator within the complex political settings of Palestine. Therefore, Palestinian higher education is reforming toward a more entrepreneurial role to enhance the intentions among university graduates to become entrepreneurs and job creators rather than job seekers. This thesis investigates the entrepreneurs' intention drivers with the focus on the university education role among university graduates. Then examines whether the university's role significantly changes the prediction power of the proposed model. To achieve this purpose, (550) participants filled out a questionnaire from April-May 2022, of which (541) were valid and analyzed, (409) graduates out of (541) were employed, of whom (293) were got a job, and (116) started their own projects. Respondents are graduates from five Palestinian universities in West Bank in the last decade, and universities are purposely selected considering the foundation year and the location. The research was broadened to include six interviews with key university actors to understand the results better. Results show that graduates are more likely to become entrepreneurs when any of their parents have a private business. However, gender differences or university do not make a significant difference. Both males and females have the potential to become graduate entrepreneurs. The multiple linear regression model revealed that respondents' innovative and cultural and family background attributes explain 53% of variances in entrepreneurial intentions. Unfortunately, the adopted activities and plans to 1 Master’s Program in Strategic Planning and fundraising, Arab American University, Palestine. Supervisor: Dr. Wasim Sultan, 2022 vi support entrepreneurship in the Palestinian universities didn't change the prediction capacity of the proposed model. Splitting data based on university, only one university succeeded in achieving significant change by making an additional 16% prediction capacity. Interviewees denote the need for a longer time to achieve change and the lack of prepared lecturers as drivers for these results. Therefore, it seems a good response for Palestinian universities to revisit their reforming initiatives to contribute effectively to the unemployment problem. Considering the different backgrounds of entering students, suggest adopting different education strategies to strengthen their pre-university entrepreneurial intentions and achieve a more compelling investment in education. Reforms are expected to be more effective if the university-market-government capabilities and efforts are integrated towards bridging the university-market gap. This is out of the scope of this thesis; future research may tackle the reality of this partnership in Palestine.