Strategic financial decision making in comprehensive public universities

Experimental results and theoretical analysis confirms that financial strategic decisions due to the effect of the policy and organizational behavior is very important. The aim of this paper was to study financial strategic making decision and decision-making processes at University of Tehran. Data was collected through qualitative research methods. The population of the study was all the experts and administrators involved in making decision and decision-making processes, including the Board of Executives, Vice Executives, Directors and Deans. In order to collect information, semi-structured interviews, purposive sampling and snowball technique were applied. The results showed that the most important strategic financial issue of University of Tehran is absence of financial independence. In addition, lack of sufficient attention to heated scientific debates in the decision-making meetings, lack of decision support system, incomplete information and poor attention to expert works are other reason for inefficiency and low effectiveness of strategic financial decisions at the university. Although the university has focused on diversification in funding, the financing policies are far from favorable condition and the large part of non-government revenues are provided by educational activities through development of university self- governing campuses and evening and online courses. Allocation of resources is done regardless of the performance of the units and is based on cost per student, past trends and bargaining. In addition, the operational budgeting is not used. To improve the existing situation, it is recommended that the University of Tehran review it's funding and allocation mechanisms and to launch an intelligent decision support system. Putting training courses in economics and finance in higher education on the agenda is also recommended.