JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Year:2009 | Volume:14 | Issue:4 (50)|Papers Count:7

In the past two decades, the world has witnessed extraordinary changes accelerated by the revolution of globalization. This article examines leadership practices among public university presidents affiliated with Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The Leadership Practices Inventory which is considered as a leadership innovation in current era was used as a conceptual framework for the examination of university presidents. Questionnaires were sent to all 960 members of university councils. A total of 472 useable questionnaires were collected. Factor analysis with a varimax rotation was used for significant factors identification. This procedure accounted for 79.2% of the variance and identified four practices including, recognizing contributions, collegiality, innovating and modeling the way.

The evidences show that communication and technology have made a great effect in developing and changing organizations as a whole, and higher education institutions in particular. It has depicted a new picture of organization and has facilitated the formation of globalization. The communication formulated through this channel would ensure fostering the quality of academic education and research. In order to fill out the gap toward globalization in strategic planning process, it is, therefore, essential to consider the current organizational communication within the present higher education structure. Organizational communication is the core of an organization and has the role of interchanging information, as well as facilitating executive affairs, be it internal or external. The form and plan of organizational communication can be viewed in its structure. The purpose of this research was to study the structure of the organizational communication in public higher education institutions of Khuzestan, a Province in the South of Iran, regarding the process of globalization. The conceptual framework of this research was based on Daft model of organization. The statistical population of the study included all public universities of Khuzestan Province, namely Shahid Chamran University, Ramin Agriculture & Natural Resources University, Khorramshahr Ocean Science University, and Jondi Shapur Engineering & Technology Institution of Higher Education. Survey as well as qualitative method was selected by use of questionnaire and interview. The findings show that Khuzestan Universities are bearing a mechanical model in their organizational structure at present and are movinging toward implementing an organic style.

Students’ population has exceeded the 3.4 millions in Iran. A 4 million student’s growth by end of Fourth Development Plan is expected. But increasing accessibility and relying on numbers without improving some qualities does not help the country in this transaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the situation of universities in Tehran in the era of globalization. The findings represent the responses of 800 students from the six universities in Tehran. The results illuminate current situations in six areas: appropriate faculty lesson contents, faculty technical and scientific mastery, appropriate teaching methods, evaluation of students’ progress, access to scientific resources and physical atmosphere. At the end, some recommendations to improve the quality of universities in the challenging era of globalization are given. 

In the “knowledge society”, the quality of higher education and the scientific institutions has become a strategic element for national development as well as the territorial sovereignty. It is not possible to the states to have a good governance without the quality in knowledge production system of the state. The future view of Iranian higher education requires a model for monitoring the quality. Grounded theory(GT) helps us to seek this model from the internal structure of the agents’ and stakeholders’ values, attitudes and experiences in Iranian scientific circles and specific conditions that embodies Iranian society. Based on the suggested model, the main phenomenon is the" will to the game". This model explains the circumstances in which the partners participate in the practice of “quality work” (QW). The key informants in this study have expounded the causal factors that lead to the formation of QW. They have also explained the context and environment in which QW is implemented, the actions (interventions and strategies) that could operate QW and the outcomes of higher education and knowledge production system of the country, that we gain at the end.

The present research aims to identify and study characteristics of curriculum design in Iranian virtual universities and to compare it with the directive model of virtual university curriculum development. Three Iranian virtual universities, Olum-e-Hadith Virtual College, Center of Electronic Education of Elm va San’at University and Center of Open and Electronic Learning of Khajeh Nasiroddin Tusi University were selected through purposive and accessible sampling. Two methods, i.e. interview with key informants and analysis of the learning management system, were implemented to collect the related data. The gathered data were examined and analyzed using qualitative approach. Findings of the research showed that in curriculum design of these three universities, factors, which influence in the virtual university curriculum have been neglected. Some curricular elements of these universities, such as formulation of objectives, form of content presentation, determination of learning activities and assessment methods have not been designed according to the model. Other characteristics such as learning material and resources, selection of teaching strategies, time and location have been designed regardless of principals and examples provided by the model. 

The purpose of present study is to evaluate the role of teaching entrepreneurship on the employment of Iranian higher education graduates in today`s changing world. The Delphi method is used and a sample of 46 entrepreneurship specialists is questioned about the subject. Once the data are collected, they are analyzed using  c2-square Freedman test and Kendal correlation. Final results reveal that the majority of individuals believe in the context of globalization, the factors like: Teaching different learning styles and entrepreneurial culture, Increasing research and development centers for entrepreneurship, Conducting digital entrepreneurship workshops, Developing IT based businesses, Policy making and planning for teaching and research in universities based on entrepreneurship values, Scientific cooperation with educational and research centers in developed countries, and Faculties & students exchanges, are the most important and influencing factors among others for making an entrepreneurship thinking and creating infrastructure for higher education graduates Employment.

One of the most challenging problems in our country is the phenomenon called “elites’ migration”. A lot of research and analysis have been conducted on both the roots and possible solutions for this problem, none of which has had success in annihilating it. This article attempts to survey the effectiveness of different policies and the role of higher education system on the migration phenomenon using System Dynamics’ approach after identifying the key affecting factors.