Professional Competencies of Medical Education Administrators from Faculty Viewpoint: A Qualitative Study

Educational administration is aimed to facilitate and protect the education and learning. Appropriate response to the threats and opportunities of the present era necessitates the educational administrators to be competent enough in this regard. This qualitative study was conducted to find out the opinions of faculties about the needed competencies of medical education administrators in 2009-2010. In-depth interviews with 10 faculty members and three focus group discussions with 6 faculties in each session held. Proposed ideas were sorted into 20 categories and 110 competencies as knowledge and information management, leadership, budgeting and fiscal management, innovation and entrepreneurship, human resource management, quality management, educational planning, international relations, students services, educational administration in health fields, social and public relations, virtual education, knowledge about laws and regulations, change and crises management, cultural affairs, physical resources, personal traits, educational administration in clinical settings, medical ethics, and political issues. University administration necessitates competencies to ensure proper conduct of the scientific and executive affairs. Therefore, adoption and evaluation of educational administrators must be in accordance to those competencies.