ابوالقاسم نادری روشناوند

The present research has been carried out in two parts with the aim of identifying the design requirements of the financial decision support system and the experimental implementation of an example of strategic financial decisions based on the design model of the financial decision support system in the university. The required information in the first part was collected through semi-structured interviews with scientific-executive experts in the fields of higher education economics, financial decision makers in the university and information technology specialists. They were selected by purposeful sampling and snowball method. The findings were analysed using content analysis and a three-step coding approach. The data in the second part included financial and statistical data and information from the budget and credit office and the university's planning vice-chancellor, which were used to analyse the cost in the system. Based on the analysis of experts' opinions, the design requirements of the financial decision support system in the university are: Content, human, managerial, educational, cultural, infrastructural, technical and operational, software, hardware, legal, economic, security, environmental and cross-sectoral requirements, and acceptance of changes. The results of the experimental implementation have also shown that the financial decision support system improves the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of financial decisions and optimizes the process by accurately estimating costs, reducing time and cost, removing mental limitations, effective use of limited resources, etc. Therefore, the use of ICT and its capabilities to remove biases and cognitive errors and mental limitations of decision makers, introducing the path to improve the intelligentization of financial resource allocation decisions in the university, helping to promote knowledge-based allocation of financial resources, etc. were among the most important results of the present research.

This research explores tuition's role in students' academic decisions. The results can help improve the effectiveness of tuition policies.

This research was done using the Meta-Synthesis method. Based on this, the specialized keywords of the research in international databases (Science Direct, Springer, Wiley Online, Eric, Sage, Emerald) in The period (1990-2022) were searched. Then, using judgmental sampling, 77 studies were selected for analysis. Next, by using Shannon's entropy analytical technique, it was determined which academic decision has more weight and priority than other academic decisions in this study.

Five academic decisions made by students have been identified accompanied with the other determinants, which are the decision to enroll, the decision in making further academic effort for greater academic progress, the decision to dropping out of university education, the decision to continuing education, the decision to changing the field of study which have been affected by the tuition fees. Based on the Shannon entropy analytical technique results, the decision to continue university education has obtained a greater weight and affectability in comparison with other academic decisions in this study.

In exploring the role of tuition fees in students' academic decisions classified in five categories, we conclude that the students’ decisions are significantly affected by tuition fees and some other factors. In addition, each area of students’ academic decisions comprises of some sub-categories elaborated into eleven primary sub-categories and 506 key concepts.

The main goal of this paper is to present a multi-level model for analyzing the scores of the national entrance exam to universities and higher education institutions.Based on its objective, this research is an applied and a descriptive research for analyzing and explaining the factors influencing the total score of the candidates participating in the university entrance exam. We used data of the 2019 year exam which include information on socio-economic status of the candidates' including educational, health, cultural and economic variables at individual level as well as at the level of counties and provinces of the country and We used the HLM software to stimate the multilevel models.The estimation of the three-level model showed that 94.6% of the changes in the total test score were due to the differences in the individual and family characteristics of the candidates. 3.6% of the changes in the total score were related to the educational, health and cultural factors of the city and 1.8% to the economic participation rate of the province. Cosidering that 5.4% of the changes in the total score are related to the geographical location, it can be acknowledged that the difference in the total score of the candidates is not only rooted in their socio-economic status, but the simultaneous effect of this situation with the level of prosperity of the cities from the perspective of educational, health, economic and cultural factors also contributes to the intensification of the difference in the total score.

To provide appropriate scientific information for improving the quality of decision-making and policy development in educational context dominated by complicated hierarchical structures, this article offers cost-effectiveness analysis. The analysis which is based on the integration of two popular analyses that is production analysis and cost analysis, helps provide compiling results and scientific information essential for decision makers and policy makers. Of the two implementing approaches, it is the short-cut approach which has attracted more attention, though the advanced approach entailed more capabilities and rarely used in educational research. Using three distinctive educational data sets, this study explores the unique capabilities of the advanced approach of cost-effectiveness analysis for that purpose. It was found that the characteristics of data sets are important in exploring the capabilities of the advanced approach. We have also showed that the conventional production and cost analyses provide incomplete and in part misleading results. It is through the application of cost-effectiveness analysis we were able to achieve accurate and consistent results that help provide appropriate scientific information for improving decision-making and policy development. At the end, policy implications were drawn and discussed and guide lines for the applications of cost-effectiveness analysis for future educational research have been offered.

The aim of this study was to identify the quality components of resource allocation decisions (financial and human) in order to evaluate the quality of this type of decisions in the university. For this purpose, Meta-Synthesis approach was used. In the first step, different keywords were searched in the most important foreign and domestic databases and 696 related research works in this field were identified. In the next step, with the initial review of these studies, based on certain indicators, 72 scientific works were selected that examined the quality components of resource allocation decisions with the coding technique, key findings were identified and categorized under 4 components and 36 sub-components, which are: Factors affecting the quality of resource allocation decisions (extra-organizational factors include: international environment, political factors, economic factors, socio-cultural factors, governance in higher education and government laws and regulations, organizational factors include: culture supporting quality, decision makers training and support, information system, internal regulations and rules, university goals and programs, organizational structure and power, financial resources and resource allocation mechanism and Individual factors also include: cognitive readiness, emotions and feelings, incentive, perceptual ability, belief and value, health status), resource allocation decision process (Includes: decision issue, evaluation of alternatives, uncertainty, time, information, Participate in decision making, transparency and objectivity of the decision-making process, knowledge-based decision-making), implement resource allocation decisions (includes: executive support and supervision) and results from resource allocation decisions (includes: educational results, research results, productivity, efficiency and cost savings, justice - equality, improving the degree of accountability and competitiveness). To assess the quality of resource allocation decisions, the proposed model of the present study is an integrated and comprehensive model because it simultaneously includes the four components mentioned above and their sub-components.

One of the characteristics of the modern era is the range of Information and Communication Technology in all academic activities including financial decision-making process. One of the real instances of applying information and communication technology in financial decision making, is using financial decision support application. In this regard, the current research has been carried out to provide a model for designing financial decision-making support application in universities. Thus, in order to identify and consider the capabilities, dimensions and the major elements of financial decision support applications in universities, descriptive method is applied in this research. The present research population includes scientific and executive specialists in higher-education economics, financial decision makers in universities and information technology specialists. Findings from the analysis of opinions indicate that financial decision support application can help the decision makers effectively in all levels of decision making, especially in financial strategic decisions, optimizing the process of financial decisions, proper financial management, optimal allocation of financial resources, effective, accurate and efficient use of financial resources, abolishing human limitations in decision making, evaluating the financial burden of activities, plans and projects, prioritization, integrated approach of decision-making system, increasing efficiency, effectiveness and improvement of financial decision quality, etc. this research is also seeking for identifying the essential dimensions and elements of designing a financial decision support application in universities. To this end, the researchers have emphasized data base, data warehouse, model database, knowledge base, inference engine, analysis tools, dashboards, explanatory materials and facilities, graphic features, user interference and the users.

In recent years, higher education in Iran has faced a variety of problems, such as university extra seats, unemployment of graduates, and so on, which cause critical challenges to educational planners and policy makers. Examining main determinants of the applicants’ choice is an important remedy to thses challenges that can be done through developing an appropriate university-discipline choice model. Results derived from such a model, can help educational planners to rectify the challenges and also improve the quality of the applicants’ choices. In other words, understanding the university choice models of applicants helps to understand university choice behavior in Iran and to improve the quality of their university choice, higher education policies, and the decisions of university administrators. In this article, the model of university choice and its determinants in terms of gender, occupation, and residence are designed and estimated using data on the characteristics of a randomly selected sample of participants in the 1397 entrance exam of Electrical Engineering master degrees. The data included information on the field chosen by participants who were allowed to choose the study field and select at least one university-location course. The results of the analyses emplying Rank-ordered logistic model, show a high tendency of the applicants to attend the state universities located in Tehran city and the capitals of Iran’s provinces. Women tend to prefer Tehran more than men and unemployed tend to be significantly more exposed to the daily courses of Tehran city universities.

Following the advent of knowledge-based economics and the importance of higher education in this approach, over the last decade, there have been numerous laws and policies in the field of higher education. At the same time, in recent years, universities have faced numerous financial challenges that overcoming them, as well as taking advantage of opportunities and appropriate capacity building in this field, require more integrated law analysis And the documents are alright. Accordingly, in this paper, firstly, based on documentary study and expert opinions with an analytical approach, the concept of "financial development of the university" has been addressed and, with the help of the framework derived from it, using content analysis method, 14 laws and upstream documents of higher education have been investigated. The findings of the research show that higher education policies are inequality and lack of comprehensive knowledge in terms of financial development of universities and, along with the consideration of laws in the category of "financing", other financial development components "Cost-effectiveness and cost management", "resource allocation", "institutional arrangements and" environmental factors "should also be considered more than ever before in new policy-making and review of regulations.