مجله آموزش عالی ایران
سال شانزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 62، تابستان 1403)

The continuous increase in the complexity of knowledge, innovations and society's expectations from universities has affected the way engineering faculty members teach and also their thinking for educating students. Education has always been referred to as a virtue including the virtue of creating mental discipline, the virtue of knowledge transfer, the virtue of applying knowledge, the virtue of training practical capabilities and skills to learners. In order to achieve these virtues, professors have tried to transmit a large amount of information, along with a set of accepted ideas and principles, using various methods. Students, receiving a large amount of information, insist more on the power of their memory to succeed in university, and are rarely challenged by practical confrontation with conflicting values and ideas. After entering the labor market, students also face problems that they most likely do not have the necessary capabilities to solve them.
 This study, while reviewing two epistemological and political philosophies and their relationship with professional capabilities and the employment of graduates, evaluates the realities, expectations, analyses and recommendations about engineering education. Furthermore, by referring to some policies, recommendations of concetuencies and researchers about the state of engineering education, the author analyzes their thoughts on teaching and learning. Then, the necessity of practice and practical training, paying attention to hard and soft skills as the main strategy of engineering education, the formation of identity, and the problem of students' dependence on computers and technologies are discussed. Accordingly, the article emphasizes the necessity of revising education based on competency standards, increasing problem-solving abilities, and paying attention to strengthening decision-making skills in training engineering students.

Social entrepreneurship is vital for creating social changes. It is necessary to pay attention to this concept in the country, especially in higher education system. Because the transition from a national economy to a global economy has also affected universities, and this growing trend have promoted the position of entrepreneurship in universities more than before. The fundamental issue regarding to university entrepreneurship is in what context and environment university members can undertake entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, having a comprehensive model to strengthen social entrepreneurship in higher education system that encompasses all its dimensions and provides appropriate solutions for implementation can be a solution.

The present study is applied and developmental in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. The Interpretive Structural Modeling method was used to conduct this research. In order to finalize the factors that shape social entrepreneurship in the higher education system and to rank and examine the conceptual relationship between the factors, semi-structured interviews with experts were used. The statistical population of this research was composed of faculty members of Arak, Qom, and Tehran universities, and sampling from the statistical population was done theoretically, and upon the criterion of achieving the theoretical adequacy of the data, a total of 13 faculty members were interviewed.

The factors that form social entrepreneurship were identified in 9 dimensions and were classified in 5 levels and their relationship was determined. Also, the type of variables was clustered using MICMAC analysis. Accordingly, the Decline in Economic Growth and Social Problems were placed in the driving cluster, Social Relations, Social Value Creation, Innovation for the Public, Entrepreneurial University, Stimulating Growth through Entrepreneurship, and Changes in the University Structure were placed in the linked cluster, and the Economic and Social Growth factor was placed in the dependent cluster.

Realization of social entrepreneurship can help speed up the progress process, it is suggested that the culture of social entrepreneurship be institutionalized in the higher education system, the social responsibility of academics be emphasized, the context for social entrepreneurship be provided in universities with appropriate governance, legal support, facilitating laws and regulations, tax policies and facilities be tailored to support academic entrepreneurs, the relationship between the university and industry and society be strengthened, and foresight be taken into account in formulating higher education policies with an entrepreneurial perspective and the development of the university entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The present study aims to conceptualize the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Iranian higher education in order to provide a comprehensive and systematic framework in the form of factors affecting higher education entrepreneurship.

This applied research was conducted with a qualitative meta-synthesis method. The population of the study are all internal and external sources related to the topic of entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education, which are in the period 2015-2024. In this regard, 230 articles were evaluated and finally 40 articles were selected purposefully and analyzed. The validity of the study was confirmed through the Cohen Kappa test.

In this study, the factors affecting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education were obtained through open, axial and selective coding in the form of 109 key concepts, 23 secondary categories and 8 primary categories. The results showed that higher education policy-making, cultural and social factors, human capital, higher education market, support and advocacy, higher education financing, strategic entrepreneurial programs, and communication and interaction factors are among the primary and main categories affecting entrepreneurship in higher education. Finally, an integrated model of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education was developed.

This research provides a deep understanding and a holistic view of the factors affecting entrepreneurship in higher education in the form of a model that can provide new and valuable insights for the development of the higher education entrepreneurial ecosystem that can even be used as a prerequisite for cluster strategies in innovation systems and knowledge-based economies in national competitiveness policies in the field of higher education.

Theorizing in the humanities is a foundational pillar of scientific advancement, with university faculty who play an important role in this regard. However, humanities faculty face significant barriers that hinder theorizing. This study explores the cognitive and professional obstacles to theorizing among Iranian higher education humanities faculty.

This research is applied in purpose that employs a qualitative phenomenological approach for data collection. Potential participants included all professors and experts in the humanities field in Iran. The sampling was purposeful and the selection method was based on the opinions of "key experts", with data collected through unstructured interviews. The sample size was determined based on the theoretical saturation criterion, resulting in a total of 15 interviews. Data were then analyzed through thematic analysis following Smith's (1995) interpretative phenomenology method, conducted in three stages using MAXQDA24 software.

The cognitive and professional barriers to theory development among humanities faculty were identified as one main theme, two sub-themes, and seven fundamental themes relating to cognitive barriers, and eight fundamental themes relateing to professional barriers.    Cognitive barriers include lack of awareness of one's mission, latent ignorance of one's situation, lack of awareness or neglect of societal issues, neglect of qualitative research methods, simplistic approach to basic research, lack of awareness of the benefits of conceptualization, and being single-minded and not equipped with other peripheral sciences. Professional obstacles also include a low tendency towards interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, lack of presence in the field (society and industry), superficiality and the prevalence of shadowing, lack of specialized fields of study, failure to go beyond existing science and knowledge to solve problems, failure to operationalize what has been learned, single-role positioning of faculty members, adherence to undeveloped and unconstructive research approaches and methods.

By identifying barriers to professional cognitive theorizing among faculty members in the humanities, the present study has led to a better understanding of this issue and to taking appropriate measures to reduce and eliminate these barriers. Overcoming these barriers necessitates enhancing cognitive and professional development programs, revising academic evaluation and promotion systems, promoting interdisciplinary studies, and strengthening industry engagement to smooth the path of theorizing in the humanities.

The evolution in contemporary approaches toward Educational Assessment led to the appearance of Assessment as Learning Approach (AAL), aiming to establish and strengthen Learning based on comprehensive Self-regulation and Independence. The paradigmatic evolution inferred from the decayed Assessment basis into the Assessment as Learning. The present research was performed to recognize and contrast the quality criteria of Classroom Assessments in higher education based on Assessment as Learning.

To perform a systematic literature review, related documents were researched during 2005-2024 in databases such as Elsevier and Web of Science (WOS), 40 documents provided the appropriate quality of Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) were studied and analyzed.

The data analysis led to the recognition of Classroom Assessment Criteria in a) the Assessment Of Learning Approach (including Reliability, Fairness, Validity and Transparency), in b) the Assessment For Learning Approach (including Participation, Validity, Fairness, Transparency, Consistency and Accuracy, Efficacy, Authenticity, Congruity and Practicality) and in c) the Assessment As Learning (including Assessment Literacy, Participation, Self-regulation, Metacognition, Validity, Reliability, Efficacy, Transparency, Practicality and Congruity).

The Assessment Criteria (Of, For, As) Learning helps support students in the learning process and gives the students and faculty professors more executive procedures to enrich the Classroom Assessment Criteria. The utilization of these results can create opportunities for the education and empowerment of faculty members, enhancing the quality of instructional performance in the realm of classroom assessment at universities. This approach aligns with the pursuit of equity and fairness in assessment and the improvement of the teaching and learning process.

The purpose of this research was to create a scenario of Iran's higher education in the transition of post-massism.

First, the influential environmental factors or key drivers of higher education in the post-massification transition in Iran were examined. In order to identify the most frequent propositions, the number of propositions related to each theme was used as the basis of the work. Next, experts were asked to rate each of these factors based on a three-point Likert scale, according to two indicators (1) importance and (2) uncertainty. As a result, 26 key factors were identified. Finally, a total of 36 different situations were designed for 8 thrusters.

At the beginning of this research, led to the identification of 43 key factors in six dimensions (1) education, (2) society, (3) university, (4) technology, (5) economy and (6) labor market. Next, the identified key drivers included eight general categories as follows: (1) mismatch between university graduates and labor market demand, (2) private sector investment in higher education, (3) political problems - economic and lack of independence, (4) the structural problems of the university in management and educational planning, (5) the change of attitudes governing the society, (6) the emphasis of the family and others on the university education, (7) the problems of the existing educational system, and (8) The emergence of new technologies in higher education. In the end, four scenarios were identified that had the most internal consistency: (1): market-oriented universities; (2): technological evolution; (3): limitations of political and economic institutions; and (4): sustainable and fair education.

It can be stated that the future of Iran's higher education system in the post-massification transition can be imagined through four distinct scenarios, each of which presents a different point of view based on key drivers and priorities.