Investing in the development of research capabilities of human resources: examining the effectiveness of theses as a policy implementation tool

The present study was an analysis and evaluation of the completed master's theses of Farhangian University between 2015 and 2020 as a tool for developing the research capabilities of teachersas a part of organizational resources.

in terms of purpose, it is applied and in terms of execution, it is descriptive-evaluative.This case study focused on Farhangian University. The statistical population of the research includes all theses defended from 2015 to 2020 and the sample of this research was 138 theses with relative stratified random sampling. The sample size was calculated based on Cochran's formula. The study tool was a researcher-made checklist with 17 components and 83 indicators.

The findings of the one-sample t-test show that the examined theses have a favorable condition only in the components of the topic and title, keywords, research questions or hypotheses, and sources, and their condition is not favorable in other components. The component of research background and attachment has a more unfavorable situation than other components. Also, the findings of bivariate variance analysis show that there is a significant difference between the quality of theses of 8 specialized fields in 17 components. The results of the chi-square test to compare theses in different specialized fields in terms of the number of interdisciplinary studies and the nature of research (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) also show that there is a significant difference in the number of interdisciplinary studies and the nature of research in theses.

To achieve the desired status and effectiveness of theses as a tool for the research development of individuals, paying attention to the outcomes of the adopted policy such as the number and quality of published articles, explaining the purpose of conducting the thesis to the main stakeholders, and sharing the constructive experiences of the professors is essential.