نشریه نامه آموزش عالی
پیاپی 17 (بهار 1391)

This paper, in the first place, tries by a brief review of the approaches about quality Assurance, investigate the challenges that higher education and systems of the quality Assurance are facing. Secondly using analytic policies, it tries to offer a more suitable and effective model based on systematic (input, process, product, output, result) and curriculum focused policy which has got the capacity to deal with the challenges of the higher education evaluation in the third millennium. Curriculum is considered to be the heart of the universities and the most important element in higher education which in turn, has a determining and undeniable role in the fulfillment of the aims of the higher education both qualitatively and quantitatively. Focusing on curriculum in evaluation and accreditation leads to a more and better recognition and analysis of the impact of different issues (inside and outside organization) on its quality and hence on the quality of the university.Therefore, curriculum focused accreditation model can, to a great extent, deal with the present challenges resulted from present accreditation model.

Faculty members are important and key factors in higher education that their quality affects on universities function greatly. Knowledge accelerated movement and great changes that extent human knowledge lead to pay attention to faculty development as most important special manpower. Regard to medical sciences is important in creating, maintaining and health promoting of society and new accelerated revolution that occurs in recent decades, Attention to medical education was felt more than other area and faculty empowerment was paid attention as an underlying program with developmental Approach. In this article, with review education experience and faculty development in medical sciences and revolution that occur in this area, the view of role of faculty in the future was drawn. Also Four decades faculty development activities in medical education at universities of medical sciences give valuable experiments for higher education managers in other universities.

The main purpose of this research is to study the current situation of knowledge management infrastructures from the viewpoint of faculty members of Islamic Azad University, Qom branch. Methodology is practical in terms of target and it is a descriptive-survey study as far as collection of data is concerned. Statistical population was consisted of 149 faculty members from whom 80 people were selected randomly as sample group. Data collection tool was knowledge management questionnaire consisted of 28 statements in three main domains of technical, cultural and managerial with durability coefficient of 0.91. The results of research indicate that there are problems related to the technical, managerial and organizational culture of the aforementioned university which demands undivided attention of authorities. According to the results, recommendations have been made for improving the situation of knowledge management in the university.

The aim of this article is to prove the supremacy of Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) versus Hard priority methods like MADM5.It should be born in mind that SCA method has four steps to set priorities between strategies that are Designing, Shaping, Choosing and Comparing, respectively. Hence, this paper introduces a qualitative and almost newer method such as SCA even though it countenances other quantitative priority methods such as MEDM. In this article, the University of Science and Culture is the case study serving as an academic environment and its objectives and strategies have been prioritized. Ultimately, results were satisfactory as far as prioritizing is concerned and it enabled us to define the consistency and chronological order among items using Multi Attribute Decision Making. In Conclusion, the strategies face with each other to be compared in terms of consistency, so any item which has the most consistency with the others, has the highest priority.

Instructional design is the main part of education process. In this research, we performed an evaluation on instructional design of virtual courses in Hadith Science College. Therefore, we considered six elements of instructional design including: content, interaction, feedback, interface design, students’ involvement and assessment and measurement of learning. Methodology was descriptive-survey. Statistical population consisted of both students (202 people) and instructors (15 people) of Hadith Science College using stratified sampling. Data has been collected employing a questionnaire (durability coefficient of 0.86). Finally, results of research are as follows: Feedback was considered satisfactory and rather satisfactory from the viewpoint of instructors and students, respectively. Content got desirable quality from both groups and the other elements got rather desirable quality. In aggregate, instructional design of e-learning courses in Hadith Science College was rated rather desirable.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational culture dimensions on the creativity from the viewpoint of Shiraz and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences faculty members. The research method was descriptive- correlation. In order to answer the research questions, 133 faculty members of Shiraz and Medical Sciences University constituted this study's sample through proportional stratified random sampling using Cochran formula for sample size. Two instruments the Denison organizational culture (2007) and Randsipcreativity questionnaires (1979) were used to collect the required information for which durability was calculated 0.81 and 0.84 respectively using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. To analyze collected data correlation coefficient, independent T test and multiple regression were used that indicated positive correlation between each of the quadruplet dimensions of organizational culture and creativity. Multiple regression analysis also shown that from the four dimensions of organizational culture, the dimension involvement was in the first-rate and the dimension adaptability was in the final grade in terms of anticipating creativity.

The goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between background variables and educational performance of accounting MA students. This study used a survey method for which statistical population was 134 accounting MA students who had passed at least one semester of their graduate study. The needed data for achieving the research goals was gathered using a standard questionnaire which is currently utilized in international studies. The results of the present study show that the educational improvements of the students is related to being native of the city where they study, their residential status and their employment status; besides the variable motivation for entering university, the influence of the friends and family members in choosing their subject of the study and the university, prior preparation, personal motivation for continuing their studies to higher ranks and the individual expectation of the results of studying have meaningful relationship with educational performance of the individual. A number of practical suggestions have been provided for the subjects of the present study as well as future studies on the basis of the results from the analysis of the statistical sample.