A Survey of Cultural Infrastructure and Performance in Medical Sciences Universities of Iran

Recently, the role of universities in developing and education of culture is considered increasingly but Iranian universities have great distance in achieving the desired objectives in this context. So, this study aimed to survey the cultural infrastructure and performance in medical sciences universities of Iran. This is a cross-sectional study that was done using researcher-made checklist which its face and content validity were approved by the cultural expert's opinion via statistical indicators. The study was conducted in census method by responses of 25 managers of cultural affairs in medical sciences universities of Iran. The obtained data were analyzed descriptively and results were reported as frequency (percentages) for qualitative and mean (standard deviation) for quantitative variable. The study results were presented in four areas: “the general status of universities in cultural affairs”, “cultural facilities of the universities”, “the activity of cultural organizations and publications in universities” and “performance of cultural deputies”. The results showed that although there are considerable strengths, the significant weaknesses are evident in all areas. The results of the present study were focused solely on the quantity of functions, and quality evaluation of each activity requires special attention and further investigations and interventions. Researchers hope that the authorities and planners use the results of this study and similar studies especially in quality of cultural practices of universities and move towards improving the status of culture in medical sciences universities in developing Iranian-Islamic culture.