A Causal Explanation of Capacity of Iranian Higher Education Policies Based on the Synergy of Policy Research Institutions

In recent years, Iran's higher education policies have lacked features such as defensible theoretical tradition, creative adaptation to global and international environmental developments, predictive capacity of actors' behavior, cohesion, integration, applicability, efficiency, effectiveness, ethical elements, Satisfactory conflict resolution, agreement production, favorable social impact. This situation has generally reduced the capacity of policy making in this area. On the other hand, policy research, as a research process focused on presenting policy solutions, can play a significant role in optimizing and enhancing the capacity of Iran's higher education policies. In this regard, the main purpose of the present study was causal explanation of capacity of Iranian higher education policies based on the synergy of policy research institutions. The present study has a mixed research method. In the qualitative phase, in the qualitative phase, by conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 Iranian higher education policy experts and applying the thematic analysis approach, a list of interactive and communicative factors influencing the efficiency and synergy of the policy research process in the Iranian higher education system was developed. According to the literature review, policy capacity was considered as the optimal policy in terms of rationality. The quantitative findings indicated 40% of variable capacity of Iran's higher education policies explained by the Synergistic variable of policy research institutions.