Developing a Competency Model for Presidents of Iranian Public Universities

the purpose of this study was to design and validate a competency model for presidents of Iranian public universities under the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The study was a qualitative research and had 19 participants - including scientific experts (n=6), staff managers of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (n=6) and presidents of universities under the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (n=7). A total of 35-hour individual, in-depth interviews were undertaken. The interviews were analyzed by using the content analysis method. The results of the interviews were validated on two-stage Delphi technique and then analyzed by using the binomial test. Finally, 68 competencies for presidents of Iranian public Universities were identified. The findings were classified under eight factors (principal component), namely: Knowledge, Abilities, Skills, Insight, Attitude, Ethical characters, Personality characteristics and Credibility.