نشریه نامه آموزش عالی
پیاپی 23 (پاییز 1392)

The concept of quality has attracted a lot of attention to many sectors of society so that universities and institutions of higher education are not an exception to this rule. Universities and higher education institutions are the center of learning. They create knowledge through teaching and research activities. Therefore, these institutions must provide appropriate instructions with high quality based on the needs of their customers. In addition to meeting the needs and expectations of students, they help the economic growth. According to quality experts, measuring satisfaction of customers is one of the biggest challenges in improving the quality of educational institutions. This paper introduces models of quality assessment in higher education based on the needs of customers. The method is descriptive- analytical. For data collection, books, documents and related articles were used. The results indicate that education system includes internal and external customers. They have different needs and expectations of the educational system. Being aware of such needs and expectations and meeting them are one of the main characteristics of accountability and high-quality universities.

In any organization, managers need accurate and valid information based on which they make suitable and on time decision. Nowadays, the need for organizational agility to respond quickly and appropriately to situations is not only necessary but also imperative to get qualified senior managers at every level to observe the current situation and plan for an optimal future. This need is more important regarding the fact that managers are the interface between the internal and external environment. Given the importance of higher education and its impact on other organizations providing human resource planning requirements, Dashboard of higher education can help managers as a means to enhance professional skills competencies. Since this instrument has not been used in Iranian higher education system, this research with studying documents and existing models in other countries and features of executive functions and higher education is seeking to design the dashboard concept model of higher education as a professional tool for decision making of qualified senior managers.

Nowadays, Knowledge is the most important and valuable capital for each organization. Rapid changes and increasing growth urge each organization to do its best for survival. Universities can also benefit substantially from knowledge management due to their performance nature as major centers of knowledge creation and diffusion. The initial investigation of knowledge management implementation is very important in conducting effective knowledge management. Thus, this paper investigates the readiness degree of fundamental infrastructure for implementing the knowledge management system (culture and human factors, structure and processes, technical infrastructure) And ranking these factors in terms of their salience in Payam Noor University- Mashhad Center. The Research method used in this study is descriptive. The statistical population consists of faculty members in Payam Noor University – Mashhad Center in which all members were surveyed. The research tool is a questionnaire involving questions adopted from domestic and foreign similar questionnaires based on the literature review. The validity and reliability of research tool were supported through face and content validity and Cronbach alpha coefficient. Findings indicate that University stands on an unfavorable level for implementation of knowledge management in respect of “culture and human factors”, “information technology infrastructure” and “structure and processes” dimensions. Also, the Friedman Test showed that “culture and human factors” is the most important factor and “structure and Processes” is the least important one.

The overall goal of this research is to survey the relationship between customer orientation and Beneficiaries’ satisfaction with services of center of Postgraduate studies in Hormozgan University. In this regard, the research will present a special model of customer orientation in higher education system that emphasizes the Beneficiaries’ satisfaction. The study population consisted of Graduate students and faculty in four departments of Hormozgan University. 191 Graduate students and 37 faculty members were selected using statistical formulas. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The results show that dimensions of customer orientation impact on Beneficiaries’ satisfaction in higher education system. Also, methods of service delivery have the greatest impact and feelings have the least impact on Beneficiaries satisfaction. At the end, according to the results, recommendations have been made for improving the situation of customer orientation in higher education.

The aim of this study was to investigate the success and failure factors for general chemistry laboratories in undergraduate courses. The sample size consisted of 183 undergraduate science and engineering students (males and females) enrolled in an introductory chemistry course at a postsecondary 4-year university and 15 laboratory assistants from the Islamic Azad universities of Tehran and Marand regions. The research method has been of descriptive-survey type. Data collection was done using a special questionnaire which was developed using available resources, and it was validated and adjusted according to Iran's university conditions, and using interviews with experts (6 persons). The reliability of interviews was investigated and confirmed through the Cronbach Alpha method (α = 0. 89). In order to analyze the data, the descriptive and inferential statistics were used. In general, the research findings revealed that much more could be gained by the students and conceptual learning of general chemistry if students use effective experiments in laboratory experience, and that further emphasis should be given to success and failure factors for the laboratory experience.

Executive, tactical and strategic decisions are common in any organization. At all three levels, examples of data are found and can become useful tools to support their decision. Higher education is also one of the parts that can benefit from data warehouse. The objective of this research is to examine the use of data warehousing in higher education decision-making and to compare the types of data in data warehouse that are provided by various higher education institutes. In this paper, a description - analytic method is used. In the first part of this article, the concepts of data warehouse and its application in decision-making is expressed. Next, the data warehouse architecture which should be considered in designing a data warehouse is explained. In the next section, analytical comparison among data warehouses of different higher education institutes have been done, and finally we have recommended parts of a data warehouse that can be used and is suitable for most universities. The general findings of the study show different higher education centers use various data marts with different kinds of information because of information needs of users, but they are common in some provided data.

The purpose of this study is to measure TQM implementation in Payame Noor University and offer ways to enhance the University's Quality Management. In this study, the dimensions of the desired component model are based on "Jan Okland” model in Total Quality Management including customer-oriented rates, commitment and responsibility, cooperative management, staff training, monitoring and systematic evaluation, changing and improving organizational culture. For collecting data, questionnaires based on component model have been set and their validity and reliability were confirmed. Kolmogorov Smirnov test results were used to determine the normal distribution of data and to test this hypothesis through the use of (T-Test). Research findings show that there are significant differences between the existing status and desired status of West Azarbaijan province in light of TQM. The present state of West Azarbaijan province is a somewhat compatible with quality management measures, particularly in the three components of "customer orientation", "commitment and responsibility" and "systematic monitoring and evaluation". However, because of research criteria and average scores were high; the hypotheses associated with these three components were not confirmed.