Explaining the Challenges of Iran's Higher Education System Facing Globalization (A Phenomenological Study)

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explain and identify the strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats of the Iranian higher education system facing globalization.
Materials and Methods: A phenomenological, qualitative approach was followed.  The research population included all specialists in the field of higher education in the globalization field. The selection criteria of the sample were being a member of the faculty, the fame of the subject at the national and international levels, or having written work in the field of globalization. A purposive sampling was carried out by selecting key experts and the sample size was 19 Iranian experts based on theoretical saturation. As for the data collection instrument, a semi-structured interview was used and the content validity of the questions was verified by 5 experts. Interview analysis was performed at two levels: content analysis and SWOT analysis.
Result and Discussion: The codes were classified into 96 organizing themes and 20 overarching themes. Out of 20 overarching themes, 3 themes in the strengths of the higher education system, 6 themes in the weaknesses, 3 themes in the level of opportunity, and 8 themes in the level of threat were extracted. Strengths: managers' support for active globalization trends, intrinsic motivation of academics to be present in the world arena, the possibility of creating appropriate contexts, and standards for a world-class university. Weaknesses: inadequate response to local, national, regional, and global strategic needs, inadequate standards of education, laboratory, and facilities at the global level, lack of respect for human capital and unemployment of the educated, inadequacy of rules and regulations in the field of exchanges and communication, inadequate criteria for hiring faculty members and graduate students and academic promotion, and loss of cultural values of some faculty members. Opportunities: the impact of higher education systems on the political, economic, cultural and social structures of governments, the possibility of universities earning income from various sources, strengthening and improving higher education systems and interaction with each other, and the view of international forums, governments and foreign universities on Iran as a country with a historical and cultural background. Threats: restricting research on indigenous issues and values, creating scientific indicators, international and global policies based on institutional theory, extensive recruitment of elites by developed countries and top universities, sanctions on some Iranian universities, damage to indigenous beliefs, culture and language, and ignoring the elite in the political structure. The results of this research can be used by planners, decision-makers and policymakers of the higher education system to review the academic, research, and university services. Also, the findings of this research could be used in compiling the documents of the scientific map of the country, determining the budget, the way of universities income-generating, and the indicators for hiring faculty members. They can also be used in quality indicators and the number of admissions of postgraduate students.