Providing a Perceptual Framework for Institutionalizing the Research and Evaluation System in Higher Education (Study Case: Islamic Azad University of Tehran)

The current research was conducted with the aim of providing a conceptual framework for institutionalizing the research and evaluation system in higher education.

In terms of the purpose, this research is fundamental-applied and also, in terms of the type of data, it is mixed (qualitative-quantitative) of the exploratory type, which was thematic analysis in the qualitative part and descriptive-survey in the quantitative part. The population studied in the qualitative section included academic (faculty members) and organizational (responsible for Islamic Azad Universities) experts, and in the quantitative section it included all academic faculty members of Islamic Azad Universities. The sample size in the qualitative section was 19 interviewees according to the principle of saturation and the purposeful sampling method, and in the quantitative section, 272 people were selected based on the calculation of the sample size in structural equations and the stepwise cluster random sampling method. The data collection tools were semi-structured interviews in the qualitative part and researcher-made questionnaires in the quantitative part. The validity and reliability of the instruments were examined and confirmed. The method of data analysis in the qualitative part was theoretical coding (open, central and selective) and in the quantitative part included descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, sample t-test and structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis).

The findings of the qualitative part showed that the institutionalization of the research system includes the dimensions of individual factors, infrastructural factors, policy making and institutionalization of the evaluation system, the dimensions of evaluation at the macro level, evaluation at the micro level. Finally, the conceptual framework of the research was presented.

Therefore, the main source of new information and knowledge production is actually the result of the research activities that are carried out.