Higher Education Administration and Accountability the Necessity of Autonomy and Academic Freedom from Faculties’ Viewpoint

Introduction: Originality and dynamism of university activities calls for a democratic atmosphere and considered as a supporting principles for faculties. Giving autonomy to universities is a fundamental policy to enhance their responsibility, accountability, and dynamism. Hence, this study is an endeavor to investigate the autonomy and academic freedom situation in university from the viewpoints of faculty members. Methods: Study population included 550 faculty members in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. According to Morgan tables, a sample size of 230 faculties was selected from different schools. Academic freedom, the effect of international policies, and university independence were measured through a researcher-designed questionnaire including 15 close questions in 4 points Likert scale. The score for each item was calculated out of 100. The questionnaire’s validity was verified by experts and the reliability was approved by Cronbach's Alpha (91%). Results: The mean scores for main domains were: university’s autonomy (81.3±21.3), the effect of international policies (76.9±20.5), and academic freedom (73.3±21.6). Among the items, lack of university’s financial independence and its reliance to governmental budget (85.6), the effect of international politics on international academic associations (79.1), the effect of political attitude of university managers on academic atmosphere (76.9), continuous changes of programs after management changes (76.5) were factors which showed the highest mean scores respectively. Conclusion: Regarding the importance of academic freedom and autonomy in accountability and the growth of creativity and innovation in university, this subject should be considered more than ever. Besides, according to strategic management and planning and establishment of monitoring system and systematic accountability could prevent the redundancy resulted from political changes.