Identifying the Model and Designing the Competencies of the Faculty Members of Universities and Higher Education Institutions of Iran: A Qualitative Study

faculty members are considered as key factors in universities and higher education institutions. Future developments of universities also depend on the competencies, innovations and professional development programs of faculty members. The present study aims to investigate the model and competencies of faculty members in the framework of qualitative approach and content analysis. The research population is composed of all the professors and higher education students in Iran’s universities. Sampling, similar to most sampling types in qualitative studies, is a purposive one, through a criterion and network sampling strategies. The number of informants, based on the principle of saturation in qualitative studies, is 23 who come from diverse universities and institutes. Semi- structured interviews were employed to gather the data, which subsequently were analyzed in several stages using the thematic analysis method. The validity of the analyses was ensured by peer audit and peer debriefing. Results indicated that the competencies of faculty members in six dimensions of educational, research, organizational, ethical, individual and professional competencies and 44 subspecialties were classified.