Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran.
2
Research Assistant, MA in Educational Planning, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran.
10.22080/ssi.2025.29607.2302
Abstract
Objectives: The present study was conducted with the aim of interpretive structural modeling of the Iranian higher education system. Methods: The research method was a case study of the modeling type. The statistical population of the study was experts familiar with the field of higher education and higher education administrators, who were selected through purposive sampling of 21 people. The data collection tool included documents and an interpretive structural self-interaction questionnaire, and the interpretive structural modeling technique and the MicMac software were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that 10 factors including academic freedom, connection with industry and society, participatory planning, financing, transformational and flexible leadership, quality assurance of education and research, environmental challenges, internationalization, lifelong learning, and mass of higher education are the main issues in Iranian higher education. The results of the study also showed that among these issues, academic autonomy and academic freedom, mass of higher education, transformational and flexible leadership as the most fundamental issues of higher education affect other issues. Also, the results of the MicMak software output show that the issue of connection with industry and society, internationalization and financing as linking variables have the greatest influence and the greatest dependency power, and have a higher impact and influence on other variables. Conclusion: Since the most fundamental issues of higher education are related to indicators such as academic freedom and massification, which are beyond the control of universities, decisions to improve the state of higher education must be made in coordination with national and supra-university institutions such as the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, so that they can influence the overall direction of higher education.
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