Provide a Model for Budget Policy in University-Community Communication Programs with a System Dynamics Approach (Case Study: Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)

In Iran, several measures have been taken to increase collaboration between universities and society, particularly industry. However, the lack of a systemic view and existing dynamics have resulted in a lack of proper investigation of the university-society relationship, and many aspects have been overlooked. This study aims to provide a dynamic model of university-society communication using a system dynamics approach to eliminate obstacles and conflicts, taking historical data into account. To achieve this goal, three main variables were considered: essay writing, quality of education, and extracurricular projects. The relationship between these indicators in the research model was established through the faculty member capacity variable, which is a common source for all three main variables. To validate the model, a behavior reproduction test and model sensitivity analysis were used. After validating the model, different policies were investigated, and the best policy was chosen to improve the three main variables according to the faculty member capacity variable. The simulation results showed that the allocation of the university budget to the main indicators of essay writing, quality of education, and extracurricular projects had acceptable results when taking into account the differences in essay writing, quality of education, and extracurricular projects with the targeted amount.