The Study of the Convergence of University Governance and Quasi-Market Actions in Iran's Higher Education

In recent years, due to the emergence of new ideas such as the new public management approach, knowledge-based societies and economies, and globalization, the concepts of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in the public sector have attracted more attention to themselves. In this regard, Higher education in Iran has been influenced by the upstream documents, to shift its governance approach towards commercialization. The main purpose of this paper is the study of the convergence of university governance and quasi-market actions in Iran's higher education. In order to achieve this goal, a mixed-sequential approach was used. In the qualitative phase of research, by reviewing the existing documents and researches and conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with 9 purposefully selected experts in the field of higher education, continued to achieve theoretical saturation, indicators of market-oriented governance (quasi-commercial) were identified. This model includes four dimensions as follows: contextual, financial, scientific and organizational. In order to validate the theoretical model, the confirmatory factor analysis was performed. Goodness-of-fit Indices showed confirmation of the research model and comparing the mean of the sample and the assumed mean by using one-sample t-test indicated that the university governance in Iran's higher education was not consistent with the commercialization approach proposed in the upstream documents.