Impact of Policy-Making on the University Autonomy in Macro Medical Universities of Region Three

Introduction: Policy making is one of the main and fundamental issues in the management of institutions and organizations which necessitates attention to its process and components. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between policy-making and university autonomy in macro medical universities of region 3. Material & Methods: The present applied study was conducted with an integrated approach (qualitative and quantitative) in Ilam province of Iran, in 2021. The statistical population in the qualitative part consisted of the professors of macro medical universities in region 1 among whom 15 individuals were selected for designing the policy-making and university autonomy questionnaires using the purposive sampling method, considering the saturation law. In the quantitative part, 320 subjects were selected using a stratified random sampling method from managers and deputies of departments, faculties, department heads, and faculty members of macro medical universities in the health sector of region 3 to examine the relationship between variables. In the qualitative part, the questionnaires were designed and finalized through the Delphi method in two rounds, the experts’ opinions obtained through semi-structured 70-min interviews, and the review of topics and study of theoretical foundations. In the quantitative section, a researcher-made questionnaire on university policy-making and university autonomy was used for data collection. The SPSS and PLS software were used to analyze the data through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations. (Ethic code: 2084838744062451398162299017) Findings: The results showed that among the various dimensions of policy-making, the component of “university structure” had the greatest impact with R2=0.927, and among the components of university independence, leadership independence had the most impact with R2=0.942 and path coefficient=0.971. Discussion & Conclusion: Based on the path coefficients, a factor load of 0.644 was established between the two variables of policy-making and university autonomy which was above average and, therefore, significant. Moreover, since the t-statistic value of 16.247 was established out of the (-2.58, 2.58) range, it can be concluded that the relationship between policy-making and university autonomy in macro medical universities in region 3 was positive and meaningful.