نعمت الله عزیزی

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study about the effectiveness of major reforms taken place in 1990s towards closing down the gap between general upper secondary education and the economy in Iran. The study aimed to analyse questions such as: To what extent dose Iranian secondary education meet current and future needs of labour market? How satisfied are employers and other key stakeholders with the quality of high school graduates in the workplace? And what are the most important further steps that policy makers should take into the account to complete the reform process of secondary education successfully? Field work using a series of semi-structured interviews was carried out with senior policy makers in the Ministry of Education. The research findings indicate that there is no systematic employers’ involvement in debates and decision are made about educational improvement causing a weak cooperation and partnerships between education and businesses. Also there is still a big gap between what is taught in schools and what employers require leading to the greater degree of dissatisfaction among employers.

Purpose: The main purpose of the research is to study the elements and dimensions of university sustainability and to present a comprehensive conceptual model for the realization of sustainable university in the Iranian higher education system and to compare the approach of public and non-governmental universities. Methodology: The research approach is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of data collection method is descriptive-correlational. And in terms of a mixed method, it is done in two parts: qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative section, the components of sustainable university were identified by conducting semi-structured interviews with 17 higher education experts and policymakers selected through purposeful sampling. The process of gathering information continued until theoretical saturation. To validate qualitative findings from participant and coworker review strategies and inductive content analysis method for data analysis, the research method was quantitative descriptive - survey. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 8 subscales and its content extracted from qualitative data. The population consisted of 322 faculty members of public and non-governmental universities selected according to Cochran formula. The construct validity of the instrument was confirmed by experts and its reliability was calculated by Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. Findings: The results of data analysis in the coding process were finally categorized into 26 axial categories and 8 selective codes. The findings included eight main categories of pedagogy elements and dimensions in learning processes, sustainable research, functional structural requirements, social sustainability, economic sustainability, academic and academic identity and academic diplomacy in the age of globalization. The results of the quantitative section also showed the difference of sustainability indices in public and non-public universities. Conclusion: Finally, the results showed that universities need to move towards sustainability in order to maintain their stability in the current situation. Accordingly, a sustainable university is a university with a sustainable strategy and strategy, a transversal and community-based vision of implementing sustainable principles and concepts in sustainable teaching-learning functions, sustainable research, strengthening democratic society, minimizing environmental, economic impacts. It is socially and hygienically, and has functional structural requirements, academic and academic interactions, a well-defined and robust economic and financial system that has always sought to strengthen the identity of professional citizens in support of a sustainable and pioneering society.