Study and Analysis of Agricultural Engineering Research Accreditation Results: A Case Study of Self Assessment of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute

The process of guarantee of quality and evaluation of advancement of programs or effectiveness evaluation of progresses based on pre-set indicators is called ‘accreditation’. The accreditation program was run by Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AERI) as one of the twenty research institutes affiliated to Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO) of Ministry of Agriculture-Jahad (MAJ) in Iran. This institute is involved in four fields of ‘Irrigation and Drainage’, ‘Food Engineering and Post-harvest’, ‘Agricultural Machinery and Mechanization’ and ‘Greenhouse’. Thus, five working groups including ‘Missions and Objectives’, ‘Human Resources’, ‘Research’, ‘Education and Extension’ and ‘Budget and Credit’ were established and the tables of objectives and indicators, evaluation criteria, measurement indices, and achievement criteria were determined; then, six specialized questionnaires relevant to each working group (one questionnaire for each factor and two questionnaires for ‘Education and Extension’ factor) at the national level for 2014-15 activity years of the institute were given to the respondents and institute. The collected data were analyzed based on the Likert scale. The results indicated that the situation of the AERI status was satisfactory in the ‘Human Resources’, ‘Research’ and ‘Education and Extension’ aspects and unsatisfactory in ‘Missions and Objectives’ and ‘Budget and Credits’ aspects; in addition, the overall assessment of the institute was relatively satisfactory. Therefore, by benefiting more from the intellectual, skilled and collaborative efforts of AERI's faculty members as well as the attention of higher authorities, it is likely to strengthen the institute's strengths and eliminate its weaknesses to achieve a higher quality level. This study may serve as a good model for the other research institutes.