Future Studies of Higher Education
M. Farasatkhah
Abstract
udent of higher education and before taking this auspicious office, I would like to share my thoughts with a brief introduction in six paragraphs followed by a short statement on the evolution of the climate of knowledge and higher education. INTRODUCTION First, future studies in Iran’s ...
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udent of higher education and before taking this auspicious office, I would like to share my thoughts with a brief introduction in six paragraphs followed by a short statement on the evolution of the climate of knowledge and higher education. INTRODUCTION First, future studies in Iran’s higher education is a "research program" which like any other research program, expands and develops over time and that in addition to epistemological significance also has emotional value for researchers and audience. This happens when both researchers and readers want to know it well that what matters them the most. This is something that has become meaningless to us and we don't have any excitement about it, hence; maybe it doesn't really matter much whether it will have a future or not? And if so, then what kind of future will it have? Therefore, it is necessary for us to be sensitive on the issue whether higher education in Iran still has supporters and beneficiaries who consider it as cognitively and emotionally important in a sense that their hearts beat for its future and know what possibilities lie ahead of their most favored higher education? Second, the future research in Iran, including its higher education, is important when we have spatial attachment to this land. As such, we must gather all our sensitivities so that our deep attachment to this water and soil, including its knowledge-acquiring centers, universities, and higher education, remain relevant to the extent that we will constantly want to pursue the study for the future of the motherland, the flow of life as well as the flow of learning and knowledge creation in it. Third, another possible condition for the future research in Iran’s higher education is that we must have this noble sense of self-efficacy that we are still serious actors of the present and the future of this land, that is, the thought of agency and activity remains with us. The Iranian researcher is motivated to the future study of higher education when his mind is still opulent. Let us not fall to the bottom and into mental and emotional fatigue. Can we expect from an old mind to sit and think about his future! Fourth, scientific enthusiasm, research spirit and discovery are among high-level needs and a sense of human self-actualization that according to Inglehart, are most needed. When human values cast a shadow on behavior, they often want to pull their rug out of the water and keep themselves afloat. Serious studies, especially future studies, cannot be expected in such circumstances. If that is the state of the present situation, there is no room for thinking about the future, whether research or higher education. Fifth, every nation needs its own story. People who have a story as well as civilizational and cultural memory, the same can become a great source of the continuity of a nation's history and lineage and makes them sensitive towards their future. When we have Gendi Shapur, Baytul-Hikmeh, Khwarazmi and Biruni in our memory, we are also curious about the future of our history. At the same time, clinging too much to ideologies built from the past can dominate our environment and relationships in the form of false knowledge, and lead to a closed identity and prevent us from thinking about change and building the future. A large part of future research is based on the spirit of transformation and scenario of "alternative thinking". Future research will be meaningful when our identity search is open and inclined to new and different experiences. Sixth, the future of Iran's higher education, whether good or bad, is socially constructed. In order to create a preferred and desirable future among all possible and probable ones, it is indeed necessary to provide all means for the participation of scientists, critical thinkers and independent researchers in this land. In other words, futuristic research, more than any other interdisciplinary knowledge, depends on scientific freedom, critical thinking and social rationality. Future research is an epistemological and social system of a scholarly effort to investigate and understand future fields and alternative options, by creating a platform for dialogue and a satisfactory search of a network of stakeholders in order to gain insight into discrete futures (especially in a world with complex content in a state of chaos) and to think and act proactively about them. Without the companionship of critical minds and conflicting subjects, it is impossible to achieve a satisfactory understanding of future developments of higher education as well as a proactive action towards it. SEVEN CLIMATES OF UNIVERSITY We are thrown into very different futures than higher education where probably we have neither an adequate understanding nor we are prepared to live in. We need environmental scanning for a future research. Different models are applied such as PEST or STEEP_V and internal and external conflicts model. Another model is "Seven Climates" from Barnett. The seven climates of university are deeply involved in discontinuity and epochal developments. The entire ecosystem is transformed with the climate of science and technology, climate of citizens, climate of culture, climate of society, climate of economy, climate of nature and, climate of learning.There is nothing left in the higher education environment that does not change. With these ecological transformations, huge dinosaurs will become extinct, and only those creatures will survive that show creative, self-aware and thoughtful adaptation to these discrete changes. Look at the only item i.e. Internet what it has done to us. The whole social and cultural mentality and relationships, including the world of education and learning, have deeply surprised us and are constantly working and will not stop. Will academics become obsolete against the so-called "ideal technological man"? Will the excessive mediation of technique cause the world deviate from higher education? The trans-human world will transform the nature and faculty of our higher education; Internet of things and Internet of thoughts, cyborgs and metaverse and in other cases microchips and nanorobots are implanted in the bodies of university students, teachers and administrators, transform our intellectual performance, working memory and entire cognitive and emotional activities, and very inevitably, educational and research actions are transformed into unimaginable dimensions. So let's conclude that just one item of the transformation of information and communications technologies and virtual networking and digital consumption, in a contradictory way, is a problem for us but at the same time a solution. What will be the future of this problem and what do we do with it? The policymaking experience of these four decades has shown that we have always wanted to move with time and did not have an intelligent and creative understanding of changes in the Iranian ecosystem and were often asynchronous with changes in the global lifestyle. I hope that this special issue, which was made possible by scientific efforts of Iranian writers inside and outside of the country and the respected referees of these articles, as well as the praiseworthy efforts of the quarterly’s executive director, Mahnaz Shahalizadeh, and finally, the encouragement of the editor and the members of the editorial board, it will be useful for researchers and policymakers and all social actors and further its discussions will be taken seriously in the third world which is an intersubjective world.
Future Studies of Higher Education
A. Paya; H. Ebrahimabadi
Abstract
Much has been written about the future of universities. One can safely assume that experts will continue to present their views concerning this important issue in a bid to inform and enlighten policymakers as well as the public. In this paper, we try to deal with some aspects of the future of universities ...
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Much has been written about the future of universities. One can safely assume that experts will continue to present their views concerning this important issue in a bid to inform and enlighten policymakers as well as the public. In this paper, we try to deal with some aspects of the future of universities not much discussed by other researchers. Following a brief introduction to one of the important issues related to the higher education systems, i.e., the issue of conceptual changes, developments in the social and cultural contexts, and technological advances all in relation to higher education, we turn our attention to the problem of the decline of current models of university. We next discuss the impact of emergent (NBIC) technologies on the modes of teaching in future. In the last section we provide our own account of the future of the university in Iran and highlight some of the conditions necessary for its realization.
Future Studies of Higher Education
M. Taheri Demneh; A. Zackery; A. Asadnia
Abstract
The movement from intra-disciplinary toward inter-disciplinary approaches by focusing on real-world problems is a growing trend in higher education. Thus, next generation universities will move toward inter-disciplinary discourses. In the meantime, systematic studies of futures or futures studies have ...
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The movement from intra-disciplinary toward inter-disciplinary approaches by focusing on real-world problems is a growing trend in higher education. Thus, next generation universities will move toward inter-disciplinary discourses. In the meantime, systematic studies of futures or futures studies have also been considered by academics in various fields. In this qualitative meta-synthesis, an attempt is made to investigate the status of future-oriented studies in various disciplines in order to map the distribution these studies. Through a rigorous selection process, 737 articles were chosen and categorized into 19 main categories and 350 secondary categories which were correspondingly classified under more detailed sub-categories. The results indicate that geographical planning, security, and corporate foresight have had the highest application of futures studies. By contrast, sports, women’s studies and futures of professions had the lowest number of articles. This paper highlights the conspicuous gaps in future-oriented interdisciplinary researches along with their strength and weaknesses.
Future Studies of Higher Education
M. Hoseini Moghadam; M. Hamidi
Abstract
With the growing complexity of current and future world issues, the interconnectedness and, interdependence of thematic areas has become one of the shared norms and practices today. This also has led to the development of interdisciplinary studies in scientific and technological institutions and has ...
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With the growing complexity of current and future world issues, the interconnectedness and, interdependence of thematic areas has become one of the shared norms and practices today. This also has led to the development of interdisciplinary studies in scientific and technological institutions and has become one of the universal trends of policy-making in science, technology and, innovation domains. Climate change, environmental pollution, the steady increase in longevity and aging of societies, global poverty, international financial crises, global diseases, terrorism, addiction and injustice are some of the topics whose foresight is beyond the power of individual and requires thinking, dialogue and cooperation in different specialized fields. The main question is: Which future scenarios can lead to the development of interdisciplinary studies in Iran’s medical universities? Documentary studies, expert panels and brainstorming are some of the methods applied in this research. The findings include: first, interdisciplinary knowledge is identified in response to complex social issues rooted in the present and the future; second, the development of interdisciplinarity in medical sciences requires a process of simultaneous top-down and bottom-up development; third, building a preferable future for the development of interdisciplinary knowledge in Iran's medical sciences involves attention to the facts that shape the subject at different levels from objective to subjective, and, therefore, a range of short-term to long-term approaches, plans and actions to build objectivity and related mindsets.
Future Studies of Higher Education
A. Rezayan; E. Marzban; A.H. Rezayan; M. Marzban
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify and determine key factors, emerging trends and driving forces in the development of future faculty promotion regulations (FPR) and evaluate the structural relationship between key factors over the Horizon 2035. For this purpose, relying on a mixed methodology ...
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The purpose of this study is to identify and determine key factors, emerging trends and driving forces in the development of future faculty promotion regulations (FPR) and evaluate the structural relationship between key factors over the Horizon 2035. For this purpose, relying on a mixed methodology and using the literature review, interviews, the cross-impact analysis matrix, MicMac software and expert panels, key factors are identified and the relationship of influence and dependence between them are structurally analyzed. As a result, five forces including "Discourse governing higher education in Iran", "Society (industry, market and government) expectation of higher education", "Economics of higher education", "Competitiveness and internationalization of higher education" and "Emerging challenges and development of Interdisciplinary sciences" are considered as drivers of change in the subject of research and the function and influence of each in the future of the faculty promotion system is explained. Accordingly, upgrading future editions of FPR requires alignment with the identified drivers, considering structural complexities between key factors and adapting to changes in the social, economic and political environment through interdisciplinary and futuristic approaches.
Future Studies of Higher Education
J. Shahvali Kohshouri; A.R. Askari; R. Nazari; A.R. Naghsh
Abstract
Sports science and future studies have both emerged as an interdisciplinary field in the world. Interdisciplinary studies is one of the areas that has grown in parallel with these two, and have had a tangible and fundamental impact on them and have been influenced by them. Interdisciplinary research ...
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Sports science and future studies have both emerged as an interdisciplinary field in the world. Interdisciplinary studies is one of the areas that has grown in parallel with these two, and have had a tangible and fundamental impact on them and have been influenced by them. Interdisciplinary research is very important, especially in the field of sports, which has ambitious goals in addition to its health-oriented nature. Therefore, a strategic corridor for the development of Iranian university sports was emerged in this article, by using the scenario tool as one of the future research methods. Exercises in universities are an institutional form of the physical education trend for a healthy and active life. The participants of the present analytical and exploratory study included 34 domestic and foreign individuals interested in Iranian university sports who were selected based on the purposive sampling. Data were collected through interviews and open questionnaires. Based on the findings, analysis of 30 main factors eventually led to production of two key uncertainties of "joining the global sports movement" and "systematization of sustained physical activity", which became the basis for the development of four scenarios named Damavand, Tafakhr, Rooz-az-No and physics. In order to develop the Iranian university sports, separate policies should be developed in different domains of university sports based on sustainable physical activities.
Future Studies of Higher Education
A. Khaledi; R. Asadifard; A. Shojaati; J. Gharibi
Abstract
The nature of future jobs will be different from what we have today, due to trends and changes in the society. Therefore, one cannot expect trained human resources in past jobs to have the potential to play a role in new and emerging jobs in the future. Meanwhile, as one of the sectors with high employment ...
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The nature of future jobs will be different from what we have today, due to trends and changes in the society. Therefore, one cannot expect trained human resources in past jobs to have the potential to play a role in new and emerging jobs in the future. Meanwhile, as one of the sectors with high employment potential, the agricultural sector will also see job changes under the influence of transformative trends. Therefore, the present research seeks to conduct a future study of agricultural jobs. For this purpose, the qualitative approach of environmental scanning has been used as a method. In this process, apart from reviewing documents and reports, 13 experts selected by snowball sampling from different fields of agriculture familiar with training and development of agricultural jobs were also interviewed. The value of the agreement coefficient between the evaluators (Cohen’s Kappa) was sufficient. Overall, the results indicate that on the one hand, trends such as reducing economic potential and shrinking agricultural land and consequently increasing the risk of agricultural activities have had negative impacts on employment. On the other hand, trends of increasing population and the necessity of agricultural products for society are factors with significant potential to curb the decline in demand for agricultural jobs. The outcome of these factors will eventually lead to the emergence of jobs based on higher-profit, knowledge-based products, and focus on waste reduction or business recovery.
Future Studies of Higher Education
R. Maniee; H. Kamali
Abstract
The main theme of futures studies in higher education is the systematic identification of forces and drivers of change, opportunities and threats to change, designing a vision and a favorable future for higher education and an effective university, and designing effective strategies and actions to achieve ...
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The main theme of futures studies in higher education is the systematic identification of forces and drivers of change, opportunities and threats to change, designing a vision and a favorable future for higher education and an effective university, and designing effective strategies and actions to achieve a desirable future. Therefore, this study aims to outline the futures studies desk of higher education located in the Institute for Research and Planning in Higher Education during (2014 to 2021) as a systematic manifestation of futures studies in Iran. For this purpose, the qualitative meta-analysis method is used to analyze and integrate these studies with a comprehensive approach (quantitative and qualitative) in both form and content dimensions. Findings in the form of evidence indicate the continuation of desk studies in different years and the participation of a diverse range of stakeholders from the scientific and managerial body of universities, higher education and research institutions. On the other hand, in the content dimension of desk studies in five thematic categories including effective management and planning in higher education, evaluation and quality of universities and research centers, curriculum and university learning, information and communication technology and cyberspace in higher education, economics of higher education and university has been done that under each category, according to the conditions and requirements of the country, priority issues have been selected and studied in an interdisciplinary approach.
