Designing Professional Consulting Model in Iran's Universities

The purpose of the present paper was to design the professional consulting model in Iranian universities. The current study was conducted with a qualitative design based on Grounded Theory qualitative method. The statistical population of the research consisted of key informants and experts in five groups: political, managerial, sociology, economic, and specialists. As this research is an exploratory study, the most proper sampling method is purposive sampling. Here, the snowball sampling technique was used. The sample size reached 32 given the theoretical saturation. Due to the novelty of the subject and the lack of adequate theory on the research subject, exploratory interviews were used in this research as a data collection tool. The collected data were analyzed in the form of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Then, the desirable model for the professional consultation approach in the university was proposed based on data analysis. According to findings, it was found that categories such as the knowledge-based economy and learning community, university governance, social responsibility of the university, codes of promotion, and communication actions affect consultation approach as the central phenomenon; and using these categories, the professional consultation paradigm model was proposed to achieve the responsive university.