Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran. Director of the Research Core on Nativeism, Learning Design, and Digital Media Production Based on Iranian Culture.
2
PhD student in Higher Education Management, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The present study aims to design and develop a policy package for enhancing the participation of Student Scientific in university governance, framed within the model of the University as a Community of inquiry.The present study aims to design and develop a policy package for enhancing the participation of Student Scientific in university governance, framed within the model of the University as a Community of inquiry. In recent decades, universities worldwide have moved toward participatory governance and organizational learning; however, in Iran’s higher education system, student involvement in decision-making and policy processes remains largely symbolic and unstructured. This research adopts a qualitative and documentary–analytical approach to propose evidence-based policy strategies. Initially, over 70 sources—including scholarly articles, formal regulations, and policy documents—were collected and screened, resulting in 26 key sources. Using inductive content analysis, the main components and interrelations of the model were extracted and integrated into a conceptual framework. To ensure the model’s validity, ten experts in higher education and policy studies evaluated its clarity, relevance, and comprehensiveness. The Cohen’s Kappa coefficient was calculated to assess inter-rater agreement, yielding a value of 0.82 (p < 0.01), indicating a very high level of agreement according to Landis and Koch (1977). The findings demonstrate that structured participation of SSAs transforms the cycle of decision-making, implementation, and feedback into a reflective and learning-oriented process, leading to outcomes such as transparency, accountability, self-regulation, organizational creativity, and institutional belonging. Consequently, the proposed conceptual model provides a comprehensive framework for advancing universities as communities and strengthening participatory policy development in Iran’s higher education system.
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