مجله آموزش عالی ایران
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 14، بهار 1391)

In the recent century universities and higher education centers have played important roles in national developments as an organization. Within the same regard, the social responsibility of universities and higher education centers in the recent decades, due to the increase in the number of students and the spread of higher educations as well as the increased expectations from universities with regard to society, has been attended to by educational programmers in different countries, and the higher education system of many countries have expanded a number of activities and vocational and professional programs. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the amounts of attention to the indices of corporate social responsibility in industrial centers and universities. Therefore, the attitudes of managers and clerks of the corporations and faculty members and PhD candidates of Noushirvani Industrial University of Babul were investigated. It was a descriptive survey utilizing questionnaire and interview data. The population comprised all the managers and clerks of Pars Khodro in Tehran, and seven corporations in Golestan province as well as the faculty members and PhD candidates of the industrial university of Noushirvani in Babul. The results indicate that regarding the indices of awareness of the educational programs and awareness of the society, university has been able to meet the need feeling of the industrial section appropriately. However, regarding the indices of awareness of the environment protection concepts, awareness of the appropriate work conditions based on national laws and international standards, an awareness of the removal of discrimination in procedures and attention to vulnerable groups, university has failed to duly meet the need feeling of the industrial section regarding these indices. Interview results also corroborated the questionnaire findings.

The various aspects of the working lives of faculty members in Iranian universities have been problematical. The quality of working life is a subjective construct and the definition of its components should be studied in the socio- political and cultural contexts and this requires a qualitative research method. This study pursues two main questions: (1) what are the various aspects of faculty members’ working lives and (2) what are the factors that affect it based on the faculty members’ life experiences? Qualitative research was carried out based on an explanatory approach and semi- structured in depth interviews with 15 faculty members as a purposive sample. According to the research findings the main components of quality of faculty members’ working lives are: communicative action, academic freedom, professional ethics, job satisfaction, faculty development, professional career, equilibrium of educational, research and executive performance. The main factors that affect the quality of faculty members’ working lives are: governance and administration, structure, organizational culture, economic factors, political factors, information and communication technology.

The present study aims to examine and understand the sociological factors involved in scientific output Esfahan University’s scientific community in an exact and scientific way.The study starts with the investigation of different approaches used in the study of scientific output and is followed by the identification of the factors which are involved in scientific output. At this stage, the researcher approaches the issue from the standpoint of a number of theorists in the field of scientific community such as Randall Collins, Hagstrom, Kuhn, Latour and Woolgar. This study is designed as a survey and gathered through quota sampling. The statistical population is comprised of all the full time academic members, PhD candidates and second year MA students who were present at Esfahan University in the academic year 2009-2010 and yields a total of 2,865 individuals altogether. Amongst the population, a sample of 340 individuals was selected as the actual participants of the study.The following are the most important results obtained from the present study:- of the different departments, the Department of Basic sciences showed the highest amount of scientific output which is in sharp contrast to the results obtained from the Technical and Engineering Department showing the lowest amount of scientific output.-The variables, “interactions and relations”, “emotional energy”, and “epistemic consensus” also indicate a positive and meaningful relationship with scientific output.-In the regression model, however, the variable “symbolic attention space” showed no meaningful effect on scientific output and was eliminated from the equation.

This paper investigates the changes in the rate of architecture students’ understanding of structural bases via common teaching methods and a new suggested teaching model. Thus, this research specifically aims to attempt answering the following questions:1- Is there a meaningful difference in the rate of students` understanding concerning the specific teaching methods?2- Does modeling the successful constructed projects have a noticeable effect on learning the structural concepts? And does this method make a meaningful difference in learning in comparison with discourse and speech classes?3- What are students and teachers’ sights on teaching methods? Are their ideas close to research findings?The research method for this paper is based on Field Trial studies.The outputs considering (P<0.05) are then statistically analyzed using "TTest, Paired TTest and Anova" methods. Diagrams and graphs are extracted afterwards using the excel program.Results show a meaningful increase in the rate of students` learning by the use of natural principles in comparison with other teaching methods. Meanwhile, results suggest that modeling the successful constructed projects does not necessarily affect students` perception of structural concepts.

The main purpose of this research was predicting student's organizational commitment in the light of their perception of current educational climate in Shiraz University. The research instrument was Roff et al (1997) educational climate questionnaire and Allen and Meyer (1991) organizational commitment questionnaire which were used after determining their validity and reliability. The study sample consisted of 1,865 students from different faculties and was selected on the basis of the classification random sampling technique. Data was analyzed in terms of descriptive and inferential statistics, using SPSS software. The results show that:1- Average student's perception of university climate and organizational commitment were significantly lower than the expected rate.2- The highest mean relating to quality (desirability) of educational climate was related to students’ perception of academic staff (faculty staff) and the lowest mean was related to their perception of learning. 3- The highest mean was related to affective side and the lowest mean to normative side of student's organizational commitment.4- Overall, students’ perception of educational climate was predicted at 17% of variance of organizational commitment5-. There was a significant relation amongst students’ organizational commitments in different faculties. 6- A significant relation was found between male and female students’ perception of educational climate in different faculties.7- There was a significant relationship between student's perception from educational climate and their commitment with regards to year of entrance to the university.8- There was no significant relationship between student's perception of the educational climate with their academic average and their commitment with the total academic average.

The main goal of this research is the study of the method to increase the amount of hope in students.This experimental research consisted of pretest - post tests in experimental and control groups. 194 students were selected from different group of students at Buali University in the academic year 2008-2009. They were selected by cluster random sampling method and after the implementation of the test were placed in experimental and control groups randomly. Then, the participants were instructed in defined sessions in their groups. The Snyder instructional method and Seligman optimism test were used in 8 sessions of 60 min each as instructional content. Snyder hope scale was used to measure slight changes in variables. The results showed that the instructional method of Snyder, the Seligman test of hope (p<0/01) and the T-test all showed significant differences between these instructional methods (p<0/08) It means that the Snyder method is more efficient than the Seligman method.

In the past two decades, such reasons as reduced costs, optimal allocation of resources, increased performance, the emergence of knowledge-based economy and the changing demographic composition of applicants for entry to universities have accelerated the trend toward privatization in the higher education sector. In Iran, the growth of privatization of higher education was introduced and proposed in the Third Development Plan, but has faced some limitations. This paper aims to explore the challenges and obstacles to the expansion of private higher education. In this study, after expressing the theoretical framework, attempts are made to answer the following questions: first, what main challenges are encountered by the Iran's privatization of universities and second, what strategies can be used to overcome these problems. This exploratory study research was carried out by means of interviews with relevant experts and questionnaires (both open and closed questionnaires). Research findings extracted 26 problems related to the privatization of universities of which the following were considered by the experts as of the greatest importance: absence of laws supporting private investment, low purchasing power of people, lack of ability to pay fees by students, structural problems in higher education management systems, lack of academic freedom in universities and government’s domination of social and cultural affairs of universities. The second question is answered toward the end of the research paper where strategic proposals to eliminate or reduce problems is presented.