Investigating the effect of social origin and university support of entrepreneurship on over-education among university graduates

Objectives: The social background of individuals and the university's supportive atmosphere of entrepreneurship are among the factors affecting the employment of university graduates. Universities can effectively help entrepreneurship and employment of students compatible with their education. Therefore, the central issue in this research is to answer the question of how the social origin of the family and the university's supportive atmosphere of entrepreneurship affect labor market outcomes and the likelihood of over-education of university graduates.
Materials and methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive in terms of data collection, and quantitative in terms of data nature. The statistical population of the research was the graduates of Urmia University at the undergraduate level between 2011 and 2021, of which 631 people were selected by Relative stratified random sampling method among main educational groups. To collect information and to measure the variable "university's supportive atmosphere for entrepreneurship", a questionnaire (Kriegenbrink, 2010) was used, and to measure the variable "horizontal mismatch", a questionnaire (Chavadi, 2022) was used. Also, the variables "social origin" and "vertical education-job mismatch" were measured using a researcher-made questionnaire. Their content validity was examined and confirmed based on the opinions of the supervisors. Also, the reliability of the instruments was calculated and confirmed. Data analysis and examination of the validity of the research instruments were carried out using the structural equation modeling method and using SmartPLS3 and SPSS26.
Discussion and conclusion: The social origin of individuals is an important factor in choosing the path of life in terms of educational and career choices. This factor affects the future position of the individual in the labor market and society. Families with a high social background are able to create a safety net that protects children from displacement and downward social mobility, regardless of their level of education. Also, support for entrepreneurship in universities is mainly based on supporting educational activities in the field of entrepreneurship. Stuies shows that entrepreneurship education programs increase the resilience of individuals and are therefore an attractive alternative to classical academic education. Education-Job Mismatch is an important issue in the labor market. It can exist in two forms: horizontal mismatch and vertical mismatch. Also, the social background of individuals indirectly creates habits such as enthusiastic study that increase their cultural load and facilitates the development of skills through higher quality education. In addition, having a higher social background causes individuals to present their specific social capabilities and characteristics to employers when entering the labor market and choosing a job, which are valuable when hiring personnel. Belonging to low social classes and the need to earn an income due to the inability to earn an income from the family environment can lead people to work during their studies. And given the possibility of running out of the low income that these people have, it may lead them to jobs that are not consistent with their level of education.
In order to examine the first hypothesis of the research, the size of the t statistic was obtained as 2.161. Considering that the t values are greater than 1.96, therefore, the first hypothesis of the research that the effect of social origin on over-education was confirmed. This result is in line with the research of (Rizi, 2023), (Capsada, 2024) and (Bacquero and Rusga, 2020). These results indicate that social origin has a negative and significant effect on over-education. In other words, people who belong to higher social classes and origins are less likely to have over-education problems. To examine the second, third and fourth hypotheses of the study, the size of the t-statistic was obtained as 6.328, 3.263 and 3.244. Given that the t-values were greater than 1.96, the second, third and fourth hypotheses of the study were confirmed. Therefore university support of entrepreneurship has a positive and significant effect on over-education. And the effect of university support of entrepreneurship on the vertical and horizontal over-education was also confirmed.
According to the results, it can be said that the university's support for entrepreneurship in order to strengthen entrepreneurial skills allows graduates to be flexible, problem-solving, innovative and adaptable to new situations in the labor market and less likely to fall in over-education. These results are consistent with the results of other research conducted on the relationship between education and entrepreneurial activities and show that over-education is directly related to the issue of entrepreneurship. Therefore, graduates who have entrepreneurial skills will be better prepared to choose a job that is appropriate to their education and will be more alert to job opportunities.