RAHYAFT
Year:2019 | Volume:29 | Issue:75|Papers Count:8

Iran's higher education has grown significantly in recent years. But on the other hand, the downturn in the job market of university graduates and the lack of regional capacity has led to a growing focus on regional planning and governance in higher education. Studies of Iranian higher education Spatial Planning have been conducted in several stages over the past decades, but have failed to provide a basis for planning higher education development in Iran. The purpose of this study was to determine the pathology of higher education spatial planning in Iran by using a descriptive-analytical approach and document-library study method. For this purpose, using systematic review method, firstly, reports, results of research and experiences were studied. Then, using the interpretive analysis method, we tried to identify and categorize the damages in the spatial planning of higher education. The results show that the most important disadvantages are: changes in study approach, cultural issues, partisanship, quantification, centralization, political influence, positivist view of policymakers and executives, and a lack of a practical framework for design and implementation. Higher education spatial planning can play an important role in improving regional governance, while providing opportunities for sustainable scientific development through optimal use of the country's regional comparative capacities and advantages.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the functions of higher education system with a regional management approach. To achieve this goal, a qualitative approach and phenomenological approach were used. The statistical society of the study consisted of general managers and senior experts of educational and research departments, who were interviewed face to face based on theoretical data saturation. In-depth interviews were used for data collection and inductive content analysis was used for data analysis. The research findings showed that the higher education system's assignable functions to future areas are in research functions (including: organizing regional research projects, organizing research facilities, setting up and developing research units and technology centers, selecting top researchers, licensing and validation of scientific journal, licensing and evaluation of scientific associations, establishment and development of regional laboratories and monitoring of output quality), educational functions (including: higher education macro planning, creation, integration and deletion of disciplines, creation, integration and deletion of higher education centers, supervising the quality of programs in Higher Education Centers, monitoring the programs' outcome, etc. ), student cultural functions (including: planning, approving and executing student mobility at the regional level, identifying and directing student talent at the regional level, etc. ) and staffing functions (including: formation of special case committees at the regional level, recruitment and transfer process of faculty members, review and approval of special support policy for faculty at the regional level, selection of students and staff, and faculty at the regional level and etc).

The document of Spatial Planning of Higher Education in I. R. Iran is one of the most important policy documents adopted by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. According to this document, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has been tasked with implementing the regional management approach in higher education. Implementation of this document could be a kind of restructuring and reforming the higher education system in the country. One of the most important materials of this document is related to the regional management of higher education in the framework of 10 major regions. Migration to these ten regions in the field of higher education requires several solutions. Four major categories of related solutions have been investigated in this study. The methodology of this study is based on literature review, review of evidence and events, and interviews with experts. Accordingly, four main categories of solutions, including legal, structural, intrainstitutional, and financial aspects, have been examined. Below each category, the suggested solutions are explained.

Innovation and its dynamics in local and regional economies have brought about widespread changes that have led local governments and municipalities to pursue appropriate policies in the development of innovation. In this regard, cities and local governments, in which the pace of development and implementation of innovation is sometimes more than national levels, has also taken an active interest in supporting innovation (through initiatives such as smart, creative, innovative, etc. ). On this basis, this paper proposes a framework for supporting, developing and disseminating innovation that include diverse dimensions: individual entrepreneurs, talents and innovative businesses, infrastructures (smart city and communications), policymaking and governance, market shaping and stimulation, synergy and networking, financing, commercialization infrastructure, education, and research. Based on these dimensions, municipalities have important roles in supporting urban innovation by shaping the market and stimulating innovation demand, providing a platform for the development of innovative businesses, financing and capital provision, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship culture, providing physical and commercialization infrastructure, supporting training, research, networking. A couple of cities with a focus on Tehran have been analyzed in the aforementioned roles.

A knowledge-based economy is an economy based on the production, distribution, and application of knowledge, and Knowledge-based investment is of its key importance. Achieving knowledge-based economics requires investing in human resources and formulating research and innovation-focused policies that can ultimately achieve macroeconomic and social goals in the regions through entrepreneurship and the creation of small, medium, and large-scale industries. Considering the importance of a knowledge-based economy, the current paper assesses and ranks the different provinces of Iran through a combined AHP-TOPSIS based approach. The result shows that Tehran, Semnan, Kerman, and Isfahan provinces are ranked first to fourth in terms of the knowledge-based economy while Lorestan, West Azerbaijan, and Kordestan provinces performed miserably low. Considering the importance of knowledge-based companies, applied research, inventions, and specialized human resources, especially in postgraduate studies in the development of the knowledgebased economy in the provinces, policymakers should plan for Executive agencies of the country's higher education preparation document should pay close attention to promoting these indicators in less developed provinces.

The development and dissemination of knowledge is one of the essential functions of regional innovation systems, and the analysis of scientific publications is one of the tools to study and evaluate these functions. The purpose of this applied research, which is done through documentary and bibliometrics studies, is to study the regional scientific publications in East Azerbaijan province and to determine the degree of compliance of these publications with the province's priorities and policy issues. In this study, research articles of East Azerbaijan universities indexed over the past decade in ISC and Web of Science databases are investigated. The results show that the total number of scientific publications in the province has decreased after 2017. The highest number of scientific publications is in the field of basic sciences and medicine (64%) and the field of arts, humanities and social sciences-despite the large number of students-has the smallest share of papers (11%). The topics of scholarly publications indexed in the two databases are largely different. In terms of compliance of scientific publication topics with the province's priorities and issues, the southwest zone is in good condition; the central zone status is relatively good and the Shabestar zone is in poor condition. The fields of ICT, mining, logistics and transportation need more attention in East Azerbaijan province.

Regional technology and innovation development is one of the key factors in regional development in countries worldwide. Moreover, the increasing attention of policymakers to the topics related to regional innovation development, technology and innovation development in provinces increases the necessity of understanding different aspects of this concept and its conceptual framework so that policy actors are able to analyze and give policy advice. In line with the third generation of regional innovation policies and the theoretical foundations of the regional innovation system, in the EU, strategies such as the Regional Technology Program (later known as the Regional Innovation Strategy), "Regional Technology and Innovation Transfer Strategies and Infrastructures", "Technology Transfer Project" and "Research and Technology Development Policy" were applied. Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisations (RIS3) is the last version of regional innovation strategies presented by EU. This strategy is considered as an integrated and place-based agendas leading to economic transformation by making research and innovation more consistent with local strengths and competitive advantages. In this paper, while trying to conceptualize this strategy, the policy context as well as its dimensions and stages will be outlined.