Internal Evaluation as an Appropriate Approach to Improve Higher Education System (The Case Study of Agricultural Extension and Education Department, Tarbiat Modarres University)

One of the critical issues in higher education, in general and in agricultural higher education in particular, is continuous assessment of research and education quality. During the past two decades many countries have made special efforts to improve quality of their higher education. In doing so, they have applied different evaluation approaches. Among these approaches internal evaluation has holistic systematic characteristics that would lead to continuous quality improvement. Through internal evaluation the faculty members examine their past activities and find out their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to their department to better plan the future development of their department.
The main purpose of this study was the application of internal evaluation in Agricultural Extension and Education Department for its quality improvement. It used descriptive survey research methodology and descriptive statistics to analyze data. In accordance with internal evaluation model, the five domains of context (degree objectives), inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes were considered for evaluation. These included: students, graduates, management and structure, learning process and degree program.
The survey included total of 24 students, 65 graduates 65 employers, 4 faculty members and dean of the department. The results indicated that departmental objectives and missions, and context were satisfactory and inputs including (student, learning resources, and curriculum), process (teaching, learning) and outputs (graduates, publications of faculty) were relatively satisfactory.
Finally, based on results of the assessment recommendations were made for improvement of the quality of the department.