بیژن عبداللهی

INTRODUCTION: The quality of education and accreditation of universities, institutions, and educational centers has always been of great concern to many groups, including managers, officials, students, parents, and employers, in the past hundred years. The purpose of current research is to design the accreditation model of applied science higher education institutions. METHODS: This qualitative research was conducted using qualitative content analysis. Its statistical population includes articles, documents, and all the key informants of applied science higher education institutions in Tehran. A total of 21 key informants were selected using the purposive and snowball sampling method and maximum diversity technique. The data were collected by semi-structured interview, observation, review of documents and scientific texts and analyzed by using MAXQDA-2022 software and weighting of factors, criteria, and indicators with the Shannon entropy method and prioritization with RANK function in Excel. FINDINGS: The results demonstrated that after weighting and prioritizing, the final research model included 33 factors, 101 criteria, and 704 indicators. There are 27 input factors, 4 process factors, 1 output factor and 1 outcome factor. CONCLUSION: The current accreditation model was prepared in accordance with the conditions of applied science higher education institutions using domestic and international experiences with a systemic approach (input, process, output, and outcome) in the form of factors, criteria, and indicators and can be used by the University of Applied Science and Technology.