Study and Analysis of Agricultural Engineering Research Accreditation Results: A Case Study of Self Assessment of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor) of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization

2 Professor of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

3 Associate Professor) of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

4 Professor)of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

5 Associate Professor of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran (Corresponding Author: b.tajeddin@areeo.ac.ir).

6 Professor) of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

7 Faculty Members (Assistant Professor) of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

8 Administrative Expert, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

9 Administrative Expert, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

10 Administrative Experts Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

Abstract

The process of guarantee of quality and evaluation of advancement of programs or effectiveness evaluation of progresses based on pre-set indicators is called ‘accreditation’. The accreditation program was run by Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI) as one of the twenty research institutes affiliated to Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO) of Ministry of Agriculture-Jahad (MAJ) in Iran. This institute is involved in four fields of ‘Irrigation and Drainage’, ‘Food Engineering and Post-harvest’, ‘Agricultural Machinery and Mechanization’ and ‘Greenhouse’. Thus, five working groups including ‘Missions and Objectives’, ‘Human Resources’, ‘Research’, ‘Education and Extension’ and ‘Budget and Credit’ were established and the tables of objectives and indicators, evaluation criteria, measurement indices, and achievement criteria were determined; then, six specialized questionnaires relevant to each working group (one questionnaire for each factor and two questionnaires for ‘Education and Extension’ factor) at the national level for 2014-15 activity years of the institute were given to the respondents and institute. The collected data were analyzed based on the Likert scale. The results indicated that the situation of the AERI status was satisfactory in the ‘Human Resources’, ‘Research’ and ‘Education and Extension’ aspects and unsatisfactory in ‘Missions and Objectives’ and ‘Budget and Credits’ aspects; in addition, the overall assessment of the institute was relatively satisfactory. Therefore, by benefiting more from the intellectual, skilled and collaborative efforts of AERI's faculty members as well as the attention of higher authorities, it is likely to strengthen the institute's strengths and eliminate its weaknesses to achieve a higher quality level. This study may serve as a good model for the other research institutes.

Keywords

References

  1. Abdollahi, H. and Bazargan, A. (2013). Developing and validiting a scale for measuring faculty members' educational productivity. Journal of Educational Measurement, 4(11): 55-76. (Persian)
  2. AERI (2015). The second decade of the Institute's efforts. Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), (Persian)
  3. OHSA (2016). Comprehensive accreditation guide for Iranian hospitals. Office of Health Supervision and Accreditation (OHSA), Ministry of Health and Medical Education. (Persian)
  4. Borhan, A. H. (1999). Introduction and methodology of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI). Karaj: Agricultural Education (Amoozesh Keshavarzi) Publication. (Persian)
  5. Karimian, H., Naderi, E., Attaran, M. and Salehi, K. (2011). Internal evaluation as an appropriate approach to improve higher education system; a case study. Education Strategies in Medical Sciences, 4(2): 77-83. (Persian)
  6. Mohammadi, R., Arefi, M., Bazargan, A., Pardakhtchi, M.H. and Fathi Vajargah, K. (2012). Comparative study of higher education auditing system in the world. Journal of Research in Educational Systems, 6(18): 37-80. (Persian)
  7. Nourollah Nourivandi, A. and Baradaran, M. (2008). Desirable indicators of internal evaluation of higher education system from the viewpoint of graduate students of Ramin Agriculture University. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Education Research, 1(4): 55-69. (Persian)
  8. Pazargadi, M., Peyravi, H., Pourkhoshbakht, Y., Alavi Mojed, H. and Azizi, F. (2001). Proposing an accreditation model for medical universities of Iran. Iranian Journal of Medical Education, 1(4): 26-35. (Persian)
  9. Sadegh Tabrizi, J. and Farahsa, S. (2015). How evaluation and audit are implemented in educational organizations? A systematic review. Research and Development in Medical Education, 4(1): 3-16. (Persian)
  10. Tajeddin, B., Heydari, N., Jamshidi, B., Akbari, M., Bagheri, N., Abbasi, F., … Momeni, D. (2017). Internal evaluation of accreditation model for Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (No. 51787). Final Report of the Project, Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI). (Persian)

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics