A Survey of the Degree of Participation of Faculty Members in the Task of Management of Technical Universities of Tehran

This article, by Ms N ahid Papian, deals with the nature and allocation of decision making authority across faculty members: To what extent are their interest represented and what is their position in determining academic matters? 
The investigation was descriptive. A random sample of 150 faculty members-from Sharif University df Technology, Amir Kabir University of Technology, Khajeh Nassir Toosi University, and Iran University of Science and Technology-was selected and asked their opinions. Questionnairs consisted of 37 short answer questions and an open-ended question. The research was carried out by using Tennenban and Schmidth Model, and applying Likert approach. As the author notes the model contains seven scales indicating different levels of delegation of authority. One might imagine that participation would be evenly distributed among faculty members and consistent among universities. However, in practice, it is uneven, varying from one institutional set-up to another. Decision making authority generally rests on status of university and expertise of faculty. On the whole, it seems that the level of participation is directly related to the position of faculty. The higher the rank, the more intensive the participation. The investigation though far from being comprehensive, seems to suggest that the amount of participation is not consistent with the enacted legislation.
The editorial board has been fortunate in having the article published in the Journal.