Investigating the Viewpoints of Kurdistan University Professors on the Ranking System of Iranian Universities (original) (raw)

2021, Higher Education Letter

Purpose: Universities have a special status as centers of science, knowledge and research promotion, economic, cultural and social development. Academic ranking systems call for one university to rank with other universities based on pre-coded criteria. The purpose of this study was to investigate the viewpoints of Kurdistan University professors regarding the ranking system of Iranian universities. Methodology: This research is a qualitative research based on the method of Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenology. The study population consisted of faculty members of Kurdistan University in the academic year 2018-2019. Using a purposive sampling method, out of 348 faculty members of Kurdistan University, 15 professors from different faculties answered the research questions through semi-structured interviews. Validity method was used to measure validity. The 397 minutes of recorded interviews were analyzed thematically after being implemented on paper. Results: In the most important challenges of ranking system, 5 main themes of educational quantification, research quantification, inappropriate ranking, central policy and credits, in the most important challenges solutions 3 main themes of peer comparisons, fairness and attention. The strings were obtained for ranking outcomes, 3 main themes of competitiveness, promotion of position and attraction of facilities, and finally, in the section of suggested variables for ranking improvement, 2 main themes of index weighting and thematic ranking were obtained.