Critical review of the national monitoring and evaluation system in Iran's higher education: Providing favorable policy proposals

The aim of the current research is to critically examine the national system of monitoring and evaluation in Iran's higher education, which used a qualitative approach and a descriptive phenomenological method. The participants in the research included 16 university and research institute experts who are knowledgeable about the field of study. The purposeful sampling method was snowball type. In order to collect data, a semi-structured interview tool was used until theoretical saturation was reached, and in order to analyze the data, the content analysis method was performed with an inductive approach based on Granheim and Lundman's model. The results showed that the challenges of the national monitoring, evaluation and validation system in Iran's higher education system are six categories: the multiplicity of monitoring and evaluation institutions and the absence of a national institution and trustee for the monitoring and evaluation of universities, centers and institutions of higher education; lack of clear, specific and standard criteria for measuring, monitoring, evaluating and ranking universities; centralization in the evaluation of universities, institutes and higher education centers by the government; Academics' belief, trust and weak belief in the importance and benefits of monitoring and evaluation; Lack of a suitable and comprehensive database for evaluation and validation; Weakness of the culture of accountability, follow-up, demanding and evaluation in the higher education system were divided and finally political strategies were presented to improve the national system of monitoring and evaluation of higher education in Iran.