Journal of Iranian Higher Education
Year:2009 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:7

This article starts with a brief discussion about the relative neglect of issues related to higher education curriculum in the field of curriculum studies in Iran and at the global level. Accordingly, the present discussion is introduced as a step toward alleviating this disturbing situation. The writer, then, turns his attention to two different accounts of the nature of the field and the accompanying mission each assign to curriculum specialists. The reference, here, is to accounts known as »curriculum development» and »curriculum understanding». The author concludes that the two are not mutually exclusive and must be regarded as complementary. However, the theme discussed in this article is deemed more compatible with the first account. The main arguments pursued in this article follow the two aforementioned preliminary sections. It first attends to the attributes expected from curricula developed at university level and then explores the opportunities that decentralization affords the new generation of curricula developed under this new policy direction. The article ends with a brief concluding remark.

Universities require an appropriate model and tools to qualitatively evaluate and ensure the procedure of the programs and processes related to the students' efficiency, effectiveness, and most importantly the degree of their satisfaction. In this regard, attraction and maintenance of the clients, who are considered the main audience in educational organizations, is one the major criteria with regard to quality and continuous improvement. The aim of this research was to measure the degree of the students or university clients' satisfaction of the educational services and persistent post-educational activities. In this research, all students of Mazandaran University were the accessible population of the research. 348 persons out of this population were selected as the research sample based on the Morgan Table.The method used in this research was descriptive and of survey type. The tool of data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire which was built on the EFQM model's Customer Orientation component (corporate images of the department, products and services, delivery of education and follow-up after delivery of educational services, and loyalty to university).Using the SPSS software, the descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, average, etc.) and inferential statistics (non-parametric and variance analysis tests) were used for the analysis. The results indicate that only 40 percent of the sample subjects expressed their satisfaction of the educational services. Accordingly, the Law and Political Sciences faculties are more customer-oriented than the other faculties, and the Political Sciences department is more clients oriented than the other departments.

The present aims to study the major paradigms in organizational quality management in an attempt to determine the amount of their compatibility to higher education institutes and their social, economical environments and consequently reach a comprehensive model. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on meta-analysis methodology (analysis of analysis) emphasizing on Habermas theory of “communication action" (1994-1996) and researches performed by Baket and Brocks (2005) and Brinbahm (1991) and models such as academic autonomy, social and political models derived from industry and trade. Findings indicate that the meaning of "quality" has changed following dominance of trade model in higher education. Besides, existing models of quality based on industry has overlooked basic and primary values of higher education.

Gender and science describes and clarifies the trend, quantity and quality of women's attendance and status in scientific institutions. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the available researches on "women's status in science" in Iran and other countries of the world. The studies accomplished outside of Iran are examined and presented in two general categories: historical studies and sociological feministic studies. In comparison with the numerous scientific and investigative efforts made throughout the world, there are just a few researches done on "women's status in science" in Iran. These studies can be classified into two categories: l) Studies examining the status of women's participation in higher education and their socio-cultural consequences. 2) A few studies concentrating on women's unequal share and discriminatory position in higher education institutions. The former is the most highlighted among the Iranian studies. In addition, a historical study regarding the examination of "women's status in science" has not been traced or found in domestic researches. The survey altogether refers to the current of socio-cultural obstacles for women in achieving success and scientific and occupational positions whether in the social environment within the science or the social environment outside of the science. Some foreign researches also imply that culture and government play an essential role in removing or reducing the obstacles. The examination of the researches analyzed in this article also reveals some shortcomings in the scientific researches on women's status in science, especially in Iran. Due to shortcomings and lack of research i~ this respect "it would be essential to accomplish scientific researches

Drug addiction is one of the major problems in human life that has challenged all societies. Several academic majors have since engaged within according to their scope. Having studied the related researches, PHD dissertations, report, papers and nationwide programs, the present paper has sought to answer the following questions:1. what are some academic areas that have paid more attention to this topic?2. How has the problem been dealt with?A total number of 370 research and paper were examined most of which were doctoral and post graduate dissertations were related to the students of medicine while sociologists had more contribution in doing researches. However, papers submitted in conferences and academic circles were to a great extent from the part of physicians and students of medicine. Generally, it is conclude that medicine acquires the first rank and sociology the second. Other academic majors such as educational sciences, psychology and psychiatry are placed in the following ranks. Finally, three nationwide researches that were either directly or indirectly concerned with topic have been studied.

The main question in this article is the identification of the status of the religious education in the system of higher education in the cotemporary era. Thus, this article attempts to introduce the triple steps (religious education for piety, education of religious behaviors in the process of development, and religion as the main component of the modem culture). It accounts for the today educational development "during the time, and refers to the three types of religious education in the system of higher education. The new area of religious studies as a part of cultural studies attempts to consider the daily education which is in the context of people's social and cultural life which is partly ignored in higher education. Thus, the necessity for development and consideration of religious studies among the humanities has been always felt for the understanding of the religious experience of Iran's religious people. From this viewpoint, studying the religions education and piety can exemplify and clarify the changes made in our society.

The present research examines the effective factors in opting for the field of study by the candidates who are pinnate to do so in the state university entrance examination. For the purpose of this research, a 12-item questionnaire with open-ended questions on the effective factors in opting for the field of study was provided based on the results of a pilot study. After examination and confirmation of the questionnaire's face validity, its reliability was evaluated by administering them primarily on 120 candidates, and the Alfa coefficient 0.82 was obtained. The final version of the questionnaire was used with 1700 residents of Tehran candidates (920 girls and 780 boys). The research method was survey. According to the results of the factor analysis test, the researcher-made questionnaire was composed of three factors, namely occupational, family-friendship and individual. The statistical analyses showed that the percentage points obtained from the reliability range of the candidates' scores average are 77/45% for the individual factor, 76/8% for the occupational factor, and 50% for the family-friendship factor. Thus, the individual factor, occupational factor and family-friendship factor are the most important factors in opting for the field of study, respectively. The t/ tests of the individual testing groups showed that there is a meaningful difference between the male and female candidates regarding the effectiveness of the occupational and family-friendship factors in opting for the field of study. However, there was no difference between the male and female candidates with respect to the individual factor. The variance analysis test also indicated that there was a difference among the candidates of the testing groups in relation to the occupational and family-friendship factors. However, there was no meaningful difference among the candidates of the testing groups with regard to the individual factor.