A Review on the Visions of the World's Top Universities: Comparative Comparison of the World's Top 50 Universities Based on the Times Rankings

Nowadays, organizations especially universities require strategic planning and identification of environmental changes in order to meet the challenges of current era. The purpose of this study was to identify key components in the vision of the world’s top universities as a means of identifying their future orientations. This research was done in a documentary method. The statistical population was composed of all world’s top universities included in the Times Ranking (N=980) and the research sample included world’s 50 top universities (chosen through purposive sampling method). After reviewing the websites of these universities, it was attempted to categorize and codify the data using QSR NVIVO.V (Version. 10). The results showed that the key components in the visions of the world's top universities included: developing teaching, improving research, enhancing creativity, fostering skillful individuals, fostering academic freedom, nourishing knowledge-based society, building a community of learners, constructing a better world, educating leaders and becoming a model university