Identify Obstacles of the Faculty Members’ International Interactions: a Qualitative Approach

Introduction the purpose of present research was identifying the obstacles to international interactions of the faculty members in Iran. Method To achieve the purpose, qualitative phenomenological approach was used. The research population was all experts in the field of higher education in Iran, which 17 experts were selected through purposive sampling method and based on theoretical saturation. To collect the data, semi-structured interview was used and for the data analysis, inductive content analysis was applied. Results The results showed that the obstacles to faculty members’ international interactions can be defined through three main obstacles: inside university obstacles (limited support of university structure from faculty members’ international interactions, limited support of university culture from faculty members’ international interactions and limited financial support of university from faculty members’ international interactions), outside university obstacles (impact of political tensions and international sanctions on faculty members’ international interactions and cumbersome administrative regulations for visa issuance) and individual obstacles(low motivation of faculty members for international interactions, poor mastery of faculty members of the international language and lack of scientific-research abilities of some of the faculty members). Discussion This study adds to our knowledge about international interactions of the faculty members and also the barriers and challenges of these interactions, so to have more interactions of faculty members at the international level, universities should be effort to identify of barriers and eliminate them, more than ever.