ANALYSIS OF DIVERSIFICATION EFFORTS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

The study of agriculture continues to become less popular in most developed countries, including Canada and the Czech Republic. The analysis in this paper provides some interesting findings about activities of agricultural universities to increase enrolment into their programmes. While the study is focused on Canada, it is possible to draw implications also for the Czech Republic as many of the characteristics pertaining to the education and agricultural sectors are similar. Enrolment into educational programs in agriculture in North America has been steadily declining in recent years. While the overall share of agriculture on the national gross domestic product has also been falling, the need for qualified people in agriculture is still important as the shift to sustainable agriculture appears to be one of the key priorities of governments in the US and Canada. One of the ways to stimulate the interest of prospective students in agricultural studies is to diversify the programmes by offering more major options. It is important to study the motivation and other stimuli for the choice of major in order to adapt the educational programmes to attract more students. In the paper, factors influencing the choice of major are studied by analysing survey data from the only agricultural college in Atlantic Canada. The results show significant differences in the socioeconomic background among the prospective students, based on the choice of major. For example, students interested in the social sciences consider choices of major much more than students in the biophysical fields. Based on the findings from the analysis, several recommendations are made. It is suggested, for example, that for students interested in the biophysical sciences, sport plays an important role and thus, an appropriate promotional campaign about recreation and sport facilities of post-secondary agricultural educational institutions should be conducted. Analysis in this paper may interest many educational institutions in agriculture as a guide on how to deal with existing or potential decline in enrolment by diversifying their major portfolio using appropriate promotional campaigns.