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Abstract: Entrepreneurship education and support are gaining great interest in Thailand. Despite the interest, less is known regarding the level of entrepreneurial intention and the interest to study in such a program. The aims of this research were (1) to study the level of entrepreneurial intention and factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention among the senior students at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan Nakhonratchasima (RMUT), the alumni, and others and (2) to study the intention to study in entrepreneurship program. This research adopted a quantitative research method using an online questionnaire to collect data. Questionnaires were developed and adapted from Liñán's EIQ questionnaire. Questionnaires were posted and spread via Facebook groups and Email. Descriptive data analysis was used to analyse the data. Four hundred and twenty-nine people responded to the questionnaire. The results showed that the respondents indicated high-level of intention to be entrepreneurs, however, they indicated the medium level of readiness to be entrepreneurs. Approximately 60% of the variance of the entrepreneurial intention can be accounted for by the linear combination of the 4 measured variables, i.e., the entrepreneurial attraction, perceived social norm, perceived entrepreneurial efficacy, and perceived entrepreneurial skills. Most of the respondents intend to study entrepreneurship at the master level. The preferred characteristics of the master program in Entrepreneurship as suggested by the respondents are the practicality of the lessons, using experiential learning method, internationalization, teaching by lecturers who have experience in business & technology, ability to graduate in the program time frame, and weekend classes.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial readiness, entrepreneurship education, program preferences, Thailand
1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship education ranks high in policy agendas in developed countries like Europe and the US. However, in developing countries, like Thailand, it is more of the interest of the academics that pushed the practice and implementation. However, recently, the Thai government has emphasized the value of entrepreneurship education in the policy agenda.
New Generation or the millennials are choosing the self-employed entrepreneurial route more than ever. Strauss and Howe (1991) explain that Generation Y is also called millennial, which refers to a generation born in between 1982 to 2000. According to the research done by the Millennial Branding and analytics firm, it indicated that Generation Y...