AbstractStrategic planning in turbulent and changing environments is always in debt. The aim is investigating application of strategic planning models to a great non-governmental university over Iran. Methodology was a R&D in two phases (a- comparative research for reviewing experiences of other universities through the world and b- designing and developing a comprehensive model relevant and fit for the circumstances of non-governmental universities in Iran. The strategic planning team involved key stakeholders like groups of managers, staff and also graduate student's representatives via Focus Discussion Groups to develop important organizational identities as well as strategic components; Mission, Values and Vision

Abari, Ahmad Ali Foroughi

Fooladvand, Maryam

Najafi, Payam

Shahtalebi, Badri

Shahtalebi, Somaye

Yarmohammadian, Mohammad Hossein

Elsevier - Publisher Connector 

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
1877–0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.061
Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2096–2100
WCES 2011 
Is strategic planning relevant to non-governmental universities; 
Experiences from Islamic Azad University, Iran 
Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadiana1*, Ahmad Ali Foroughi Abarib, Badri 
Shahtalebic, Maryam Fooladvandd, Somaye Shahtalebie, Payam Najafif
aAssociate Professor, Head, Quality in Higher Education Group(QHEG), Islamic Azad University,Kkhorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran 
bAssisstant Professor & Chancellor,Islamic Azad University,Kkhorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran 
c&fAssisstant Professor,Islamic Azad University,Kkhorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran 
d&eM Sc, Educational Planninh, Islamic Azad University,Kkhorasgan Branch, Isfahan, Iran 
Abstract 
Strategic planning in turbulent and changing environments is always in debt. The aim is investigating application of strategic 
planning models to a great non-governmental university over Iran. Methodology was a R&D in two phases (a- comparative 
research for reviewing experiences of other universities through the world and b- designing and developing a comprehensive 
model relevant and fit for the circumstances of non-governmental universities in Iran. The strategic planning team involved key 
stakeholders like groups of managers, staff and also graduate student's representatives via Focus Discussion Groups to develop 
important organizational identities as well as strategic components; Mission, Values and Vision.  
© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 
Keywords: Strategic Planning; Higher Education; Non-governmental Universities; Quality of Education 
1. Introduction 
Today, most of countries are faced to waves of the globalization on their industries and business sectors as well 
as higher education sectors or universities. Countries cannot respond to this competition simply by reducing their 
expenditures or making efficient their costs. Instead they must take an active role in transforming their traditional 
strategies toward more sophisticated strategies and much more knowledge based enterprise. This is especially 
important for developing countries, in which over 99% of the industries, representing over 70 % of employment 
opportunities, are small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs).In these countries higher education sectors and 
universities are going out from government dominance. Such a transformation will also need to go hand-in-hand 
with the development of a culture that encourages creation of the next generation of companies and organizations, 
building on today’s emerging technologies. It is clear that they must learn how to translate their academic excellence 
into added value and employment opportunities. This will necessitate bringing together different actors on the 
innovation scene and taking much more efficient and concerted approach to achieve and maintain competitiveness 
in an increasingly challenging global environment (EPFL, 2006; Peterson, 1980; Lerner, 1999; Dooris, Kelley & 
* Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadian. Tel.: +98 311 6501633; fax: +98 311 6684799. 
E-mail address: mhyarm1381@yahoo.co.uk. 
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadian et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2096–2100 2097
Trainer, 2004; Newman, & Couturier, 2002; Matt, 2010). For this reason, most of organizations are designing and 
developing programs and projects for improving their quality level. Despite taking general advantages of each 
quality project for organizations, while decision making to choose and apply strategic planning model, they should 
consider organizational context, level of people maturity, constrains and limitations as well as efficiency and 
effectiveness (EPFL, 2006; Haghshenas & Yarmohammadian, 2009; Anagnostopoulos, 2010; Mosadegh Rad & 
Yarmohammadian, 2006). 
The foundation of the Islamic Azad University Khorasgan Branch (IAUK) was approved by the Islamic Azad 
University Board of Trustees on 1987. This Branch commenced majoring 510 students in 4 disciplines in the same 
year and it is currently hosting 12000 students majoring in 81 different fields of study. So far 34792 students have 
graduated from this university. 
Strategic Planning has a tendency to encourage people to think about the future. This is extremely important 
since many organizations are inward thinking, focusing too much on the short-term. Strategic planning looks at the 
long-term vision and achievable mission as well as strategic issues and directions. It has been expressed that 
organizations which focus on the long-term through strategic planning increase their quality level rather than other 
organizations. Consequently, one of the benefits of strategic planning is long-term performance, quality and growth. 
Another benefit of strategic planning is communication. Strategic Plans communicate the intentions of management 
to employees, stakeholders, and others that means strategic planning process is a strong instrument for 
organizational dialogue and communication (Mahoney, 1997; Lerner , 1999 ; Anagnostopoulos, 2010 ; Hayward, 
Ncayiyana & Johnson, 2003; Dooris, Kelley & Trainer, 2004; Newman & Couturier,  2002; Yarmohammadian, 
Bahrami & Foroughi Abari, 2008; Yarmohammadian et al, 2006). 
The fundamental purpose of strategic planning in higher education is to provide an ongoing process of 
examination and evaluation of an institution’s strengths, weaknesses, goals, resource requirements and future 
prospects, and to set out a coherent plan to respond to the findings and build a stronger, more effective institution. It 
has been defined as ‘… a conscious process by which an institution assesses its current state and the likely future 
condition of its environment, identifies possible future states for itself, and then develops organized strategies, 
policies, and procedures for selecting and getting to one or more of them’. 
Strategic planning is designed to strengthen and enhance the performance and quality of an institution. However, 
it should not be used as a vehicle to conduct reductions in staff or programs considered unproductive. While one of 
the results of strategic planning may be the loss of staff or programs, this should occur only as the result of careful 
institutional analysis that occurs throughout the strategic planning process. In fact, if staff reductions are anticipated, 
these should occur prior to launching the strategic planning process. Failing this, the process will be linked to the 
resulting losses, thus undermining its potential for success.(Haghshenas  & Yarmohammadian, 2009; Lerner, 1999; 
Anagnostopoulos, 2010; Hayward, Ncayiyana & Johnson, 2003; Dooris,  Kelley & Trainer, 2004; Newman & 
Couturier, 2002; Ansari et al, 2009). 
According to literature review, there is a need for nongovernmental universities like Islamic Azad University-
Khorasgan Branch (IAUK) to take advantages of strategic planning models, making a strategic vision and aim for 
improving quality of its services. A strategic planning model which is modified and adopted from integrated 
strategic plan (Yarmohammadian et al, 2009a) the first version was experienced in IUMS and reported by 
Yarmohammadian (2009b) has been tried to revise, install and establish into IAUK. 
2. Scope of project 
IAUK with more than 20 years of experiences in education, research and development has gotten its appropriate 
position in the regional level as well as national area. Presently, with the purpose of achieving its future prospect, 
which is to attain the highest national position, to achieve appropriate indices of higher education in international 
levels, to reach the highest leading status among the universities of Isfahan province and to increase the scientific 
ohammad ossein a mohammadian / ocedia Social and ehavio al Sciences 00 ( 0 ) 000 000
products indexed in international levels, the university has developed its short and long term programs (Islamic 
Azad University, Khorasgan Branch, 2009). 
IAUK  Branch  also  is  one  of  the  none-governmental  universities  in  comprehensive  rank  over  Iran.  IAUK  is  
committed to continuing its progress among the very best non-governmental universities in Middle East. We have 
articulated our ambitions around a well-defined strategy, which fully takes place within IAUK`s prime missions 
toward students and the scientific community as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran people and society. The Branch 
is in a phase of continuous quantitative and qualitative growth. The challenge awaiting us will be to sustain this 
growth by enhancing our positive impact in the life of the society, as well as on the economy in IRI. 
2098  Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadian et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2096–2100
Over the last few years, several programs experienced by Islamic Azad Universities as well as state universities 
in Iran for improving quality and promoting their situation in higher education business market in regional and 
national level as well as international level. They have been involved in addressing the challenge of both measuring 
the performance of their acquisition systems and using performance results to improve their processes and practices 
to better meet the expectations of their customers for higher quality, lower cost, and improved service. 
In 2009, the IAUK created teamwork to analyze the situation of Islamic Azad universities in Iran higher 
education system, to identify innovative approaches for measuring performance, and to develop strategies and 
recommendations for promoting situation and in search of excellence. At that time, most IAU Branches did establish 
some kind of strategic teams. Most of them developed a similar kind of strategic plans that were very generic and 
adopted from a simple classic model. That model was found to lack a focus on the outcomes of the processes used 
and largely in effective in obtaining dramatic and sustained improvements in the quality of the operations. IAU, 
Khorasgan Branch through research and site visits to leaders in performance measurement, identified critical success 
factors for acquisition organizations and developed an integrated approach known as Strategic Planning Model. 
In 2009,IAUK chartered IAUK-Strategic Planning Teamwork to create, document, and maintain a strategic 
quality framework for acquisition that builds upon the Model (Yarmohammadian et al, 2009b). The framework was 
designed with sufficient flexibility to address IAUK special needs and have sufficient cohesion and commonality to 
identify key quality measures and appropriate benchmarks. The IAUK Team researched, designed, produced, and 
will facilitate implementation of the system, processes, and procedures necessary to meet the IAUK objectives of an 
effective management system in an ever-changing and turbulent environment. Various Focus Discussion groups 
(FDGs) including Research, Education, Resources, Cultural and Student affairs groups established. Groups started 
their tasks with Strategic planning Workshops and then during a period of 6-9 months they had regular meetings and 
produced  SWOT analysis, identify stakeholders, make strategies ,set strategic goals and design objectives and 
action plans for the universities. 
Stakeholders in IAU, Khorasgan
Branch
Interface 
stakeholders 
Branch-Internal 
Stakeholders
IAU-Internal
Stakeholders
- Students
-Faculty (full time) 
- Staff
-Faculty (part time,
invitee, tuition fee OR
teacher’s fee) 
-Internal university
contract firms    
-Islamic Azad 
University 4 region 
(area)
- Others regions 
branch and country 
-Central organization 
Islamic Azad university 
Local-External 
Stakeholders 
-city attendant OR 
responsible (Khorasgan 
municipality OR city hall, 
city parliament, 
governmental 
organization…) 
Khorasgan  
- City attendant OR 
responsible and Isfahan 
province (governorships, 
city parliament, 
gubernatorial) 
- Governmental 
universities and non-
governmental 
universities in province  
-industrial capital, 
factories (in graduate 
absorption department) 
-parliament agent 
National-External 
Stakeholders
- Ministry of science, 
research and 
Technology 
- Ministry of Health 
and Medical 
Education 
- Others organization 
and ministries and 
Islamic republic 
institution   
Figure 1. Stakeholders identification for IAU, Khorasgan Branch  
Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadian et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2096–2100 2099
3. Methodology of project 
Methodology of this article was a kind of research and development (R&D) in two phases (a- review and 
comparative research for reviewing and analyzing experiences of other universities through the world and b- 
designing and developing an applied and comprehensive model that was relevant and fit for the circumstances of 
non-governmental universities in Iran specifically Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch as a great level 
university in national level. The strategic planning team involved key stakeholders like groups of managers, staff 
and also graduate student's representatives via Focus Discussion Groups in year 2009-10 to develop important 
organizational identities as well as strategic components such as Mission, Values and Vision. Figure 1 describes 
phases of strategic planning model in this research. 
Situational Analysis 
Phase Two
Analytical Approach: 
Quantitative Research
Phase One
Documentary Analysis: 
Content Analysis
Phase Three
Visionary Approach: 
Qualitative Study
Phase Four
Participative Approach: 
Survey Research
Tool
Statistics
Target: 
past Trends & Current 
Situation & Forecast 
Scenarios
Tool
Content
Target: 
Concept Components 
Tool
Interview
Target Group:
Interface-Stakeholders & 
Senior Managers of 
University
Tool
Questionnaire
Target Group:
Staff (Academic& 
Nonacademic), Students, 
other Stakeholders
Identifying & Analyzing SWOT 
SWOT Matrix 
Developing Strategic Components; Mission, 
Vision, Values, Strategies Goals
Revision & validation
Focus Discussion Groups
Figure 2. phases of strategic planning model 
Applying strategic planning models for nongovernmental universities as well as other industrial and business 
sectors showed a great deal benefit and relevance. The following are some benefits of application of strategic 
planning model taking advantages of FDGs in IAUK that we attained during the process of implementation of this 
model: 
- a systematic approach to unify all planning effort through organization. 
- a quality improvement tool for assuring quality actions and programs. 
- an instrument for reengineering business processes. 
- a training tool to educate all staff (academic as well as nonacademic) emphasizing on learning and growth, 
internal business processes as well as customer and financial measures. 
- a communication tool to translate strategy of top managers to lower levels of management and participatory 
management. 
4. Results and conclusion 
2100  Mohammad Hossein Yarmohammadian et al. / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 2096–2100
- a tool to monitor, evaluate key control indicators formative or summative. 
- a tool to manage unwanted tradeoffs and correct unimportant action plans. 
- a goal deployment approach for driving strategic goals down through the organization. 
- a management system for focusing scarce resources on the most strategically leveraged improvements needed 
for successful strategy implementation. 
The strategic plan which is developed and applied and examined as a system for linking strategy to action for 
IAUK, it took much mind and labor work during the process of designing and implementing in this university but it 
is strongly worth of work and helpful for higher education sector system in general as well as universities 
specifically Non-governmental and private universities. It is considered that a strategic planning that is combined 
and integrated with FDGs Technique can help organizations such as universities on their journey of quality, to 
greatness and to excellence.  
References 
Anagnostopoulos,  K.  P. (2010). Strategic Plan in a Greek Manufacturing Company: A Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map Implementation, 
International Journal of Business and Management, Vol 5, No 2,February, 2010 URL: www.ccsenet.org/ijbm 
Ansari,  M., Rahimi,  A., Yarmohammadian, M.  H. & Yaghoubi,  M. (2009). Strategic External and Internal Analysis of Isfahan University, Intl 
Conference on Technology and Business Management, Al Ghuraair University, UAE, March 29-April 1, 2009. 
Dooris, M. J., Kelley, J. M. & Trainer, J.  F. (2004). Strategic planning in higher education, Wiley Periodicals, Inc, DOI: 10.1002/ir.115. 
EPFL(2006)(Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne ) Strategic Planning 2008-2011, Final Version 13.02.06. 
Haghshenas, A. & Yarmohammadian, M. H. (2009).  Evaluation of 1st IUMS Strategic Plan,Isfahan( Research Report in Persian) 
Hayward,  F. M., Ncayiyana D. J. & Johnson,  J. E. (2003).  Strategic Planning ; A Guide for Higher Education Institution,ISBN:  
1-919833-43-9 
Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch,  (2009).  Official Website of Deputy of Research, URL: http://en.khuisf.ac.ir/ 
Lerner, A. L. (1999).  A Strategic Planning Primer for Higher Education, College of Business Administration and Economics, California State 
University, Northridge. 
Mahoney, R. I. ( 1997). Reinventing the University: Object Lessons from Big Business. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 October 1997. 
Matt,  H.  E. (2010).  Excellence in Financial Management,Course 10: Strategic Planning,  url:www.exinfm.com/training. 
Mosadegh Rad,  A.  M.  & Yarmohammadian,  M. H. (2006).  A study of relationship between managers leadership style and employees` job 
satisfaction, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance; Incorporating Leadership in Health Service,Vol.19,No.2,2006. 
 Newman, F. & Couturier,  L. K. (2002).  Trading Public Good in the Higher EducationMarket. The Observatory on borderless higher education, 
January 2002. 
Peterson, M.W. (1980). Analyzing Alternative Approaches to Planning’. Improving Academic Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 
Publishers. 
Yarmohammadian,  M. H., Bahrami,  S., Karimian,  J., Shahrzadi,  L. & Mosadgh Rad,  A. M. (2006). Health Information Management, Vol.2, 
No.2,2005-6,p71-8.( Article in Persian). 
Yarmohammadian, M. H. , Bahrami, S. & Foroughi Abari, A. A. (2008).  Educational Administration & Planning, Health Management& 
Economic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan (Book  in Persian). 
Yarmohammadian, M. H., Haghshenas, A., Raeisi,  A. & Asgari, H.  (2009a). New Integrated Model for Strategic Planning in Higher Education, 
6th International Conference on Management, Greater Noida, India.Dec.28,2008-Jan. 1,2009. 
Yarmohammadian, M. H.,  Foroughi Abari,  A. A., Anasri,  M.  & Kiani, H. (2009b).  Using strategic Planning Model to Improve Iran Higher 
Education NG-NP, Intl Conference on Technology and Business Management, Al Ghuraair University, UAE, March 29-April 1, 2009. 


Is strategic planning relevant to non-governmental universities; Experiences from Islamic Azad University, Iran 

file:///data/core-remote/dit/data/elsevier/pdf/e12/aHR0cDovL2FwaS5lbHNldmllci5jb20vY29udGVudC9hcnRpY2xlL3BpaS9zMTg3NzA0MjgxMTAwNjA3MA==.pdf

Is strategic planning relevant to non-governmental universities; Experiences from Islamic Azad University, Iran

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Elsevier - Publisher Connector