University revenue diversification: a path to financial stability

The purpose of present study was to investigate revenue diversification among Iranian public universities in order to improve the stability and flexibility of financial resources. A quantitative practical correlational research design was utilized for this study. The spatial scope of research was one and two level comprehensive public and industrial public universities during 2013-2018. Data were gathered using official reports from Plan and Budget Organization, Iran Central Bank and Institute for Research and Planning for Higher Education. Data were analyzed by Eviews software and fixed effect model.  Results indicated that income diversity index had a significant inverse relationship with changes of per capita income. On the other hand, tuition criterion model has a significant and direct relationship with university income per capita. In addition, results illustrated that Iran`s higher education align with world higher education has faced economic instability and public budget has not met the financial requirements of the universities. There is a serious weakness in revenue diversification and high level of dependency on tuition income among public universities. This is all in the conditions that increase government spending  and future instability have caused the government  to direct university to make money from other sources.