New Approaches to Planning and Academic Identity Schisms in Higher Education

The purpose of the research was to gain the lived experience of the faculty from the status of academic identities; and how new approaches to planning based on managerialism create the schism of academic identities. The research method was grounded theory. Data were collected through in-depth qualitative interviews with 16 faculty members based on theoretical and purposeful sampling, at Mazandaran University, Allameh University, Institute for Research and Planning in Higher Education, and the Institute for Cultural and Social Studies of the Ministry of SRT, which previously or currently hold management positions. In each interview by snowball sampling. ,key informants were identified by the interviewers. The data collection process continued until saturation was happened. Using Maxqda software, data analysis was performed in three stages of open coding, axial and selective coding and the main categories including causal conditions, intra-academic factors, extra-academic factors, strategies, and concequences emerged and based on the paradigm diagram derived from the study. The findings showed that modern approaches to planning are based on neoliberal doctrine, whereby the importance of monetization is emphasized in terms of cost savings. However, this is only one reason for the schism of academic identities, and the numerous causes ultimately create the delay space of society and higher education that have been yield to academic identity schism. Describing the delay space of the society and the planning of higher education, along with internal and external factors, created strategies that led to consequences at the individual, organizational, and social levels.