Investigating the current and desirable situation of academic freedom in the Iranian higher education system

The current research was conducted with the aim of studying the understanding and perceptions of faculty members about the current and desirable state of academic freedom. For this purpose, a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research approach was chosen. Research tools included interviews and researcher-made questionnaire (75 questions), including five subscales (dimensions of academic freedom, challenges to academic freedom, requirements of academic freedom, institutionalization strategies and limits of academic freedom). The content of these questions were based on the results of the qualitative section (interviews and research literature). Questionnaire’s questions were developed based on codes extracted from interviews and literature. The variables were selected based on main and sub-categories and the relationship between them. The statistical population of the research in the qualitative part included 13 experts and in the quantitative part included 325 faculty members of the country’s universities who were selected based on Cochran's formula and multi-stage random sampling method. Data were analyzed using SPPS and LISREL software and descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the research in the quantitative part indicated that in the status quo of academic freedom, the dimensions of ethics and academic profession under the component of the limits of academic freedom with an average of 52.3 and 26.3 had the highest average and political and policy maker’s dimensions with an average of 22.2 and 37.2 had the lowest average and rank among the components of academic freedom. Moreover, the desirable condition of the results indicated that contextual and structural dimensions under the component of requirements with an average had the highest average and the governmental and institutional dimensions under the components of academic freedom challenges had the lowest average and rank among the components of academic freedom.