Institutional Research: An Approach to University Development in Sustainable Development (Qualitative content analysis)

The higher education system plays a central role in the process of sustainable development of countries, and today to improve this process we use Institutional research, which entails the systematic process of research and evaluation of all processes, programs, functions, resources and effectiveness of organizational units in a university or higher education institution centered in an office of institutional research, through engagement with other units. The purpose of this study was to identify the role of institutional research in sustainable development through in-depth study and overview of data collected with library method and document study. So far, many studies have been conducted in the field of institutional research, in which most of the functions of institutional research have been addressed, but the external effects of institutional research have not been addressed. Researchers have reviewed and analyzed previous research and available papers to identify the role of institutional research in creating a sustainable university and ultimately sustainable development, and have attempted to present a university role model with an institutional research approach to sustainable university development. In this study we presumed that, the dimensions of the sustainable university are (sustainable education and research, sustainable university campus, sustainable university management, providing specialized services to the society), and the dimensions of institutional research with the mission of sustainable development are (communication, information authority, policy analysis, research and decision making, evaluation, accountability). Regarding the key role of the institutional research office in establishing a sustainable university, it would be advisable to take the necessary steps to establish these offices in the absence of an institutional investigation office. The final result of this research is to present a conceptual model of university role model with an institutional research approach to sustainable development.