Background & Aims: Educational planning is a series of overlapping and irregular stages in which various people and organizations are involved with diverse views, politically and technically. These steps include processes in which content and issues are analyzed, policies are identified and then implemented, re-evaluated, and redesigned. Based on this trend, a complete analysis of the education sector will require an understanding of the flow of educational policy, meaning "how" and "when" educational development will take place. Since the policy-making process is an important element in educational planning, it is important to clarify the concepts of "policy" and "policy-making". Policy is an explicit or implicit group or individual decision that provides a set of guidelines to guide future decisions, initiate or delay an action, or provide executive guidance on previous decisions. Policymaking is the first step in a planning cycle, and planners must conduct a dynamic assessment of how policies are set before they can effectively design the implementation and evaluation of a process. For educational policy-making in university units, the analysis of educational policies is done in several stages, achieving educational opportunities, equality in the distribution of educational services, the structure of the educational system, internal efficiency, and external efficiency of institutional arrangements for department management. Of course, evaluating the existing situation without evaluating the forces against and against change, when policy changes become necessary, is an incomplete analysis. Also, this evaluation should include the chance of success of various policies and strategies that should be used to implement and advance these policies. The fact is that in today's world, where we are witnessing tremendous changes and developments in various fields, the environment is facing a lot of turbulence and uncertainty, and the competition has become very intense. To achieve success in the field of competition, university systems must use a type of planning that is forward-looking and environmentally oriented, so that while identifying environmental factors and developments, in a long-term time horizon, their impact on the university and how to interact Determine it with them. Research policy is the same as strategic planning which, by examining the external and internal environment of the university, identifies environmental opportunities and threats and internal strengths and weaknesses, and sets long-term goals for the university keeping in mind the mission of the organization. To achieve these goals, from among the strategic options, he chooses strategies that rely on the strengths and eliminate the weaknesses, use the opportunitiesworthilyr, and avoid the threats. If it is implemented correctly, it will make the university successful in the field of competition. For educational policy-making, one should resort to different solutions. One of the solutions that has been receiving the attention of passers-by policy for several years is policy research. Policy research is the use of practical and scientific research in policy-making, with the use of this method, social issues are identified, sensitive information is collected, concepts and hypotheses are created, and more importantly, All research is recognized by policymakers. Policy research is closely related to agenda setting and its results are very useful for the development of public policies. Policy studies study the policy-making process. Political research is mainly carried out by political science specialists who are interested in the process of adopting policies and the effects of policies. Political research is effective in policy-making. The process of policy research is made up of four dimensions: identifying problems and identifying issues, understanding the main issues, supporting the program of selective measures, and evaluating the effect and control process. Considering the importance of educational policy-making in today's world and the consequences of this type of policy-making, the present study studied the process of policy research in educational policy-making in the university units of Mazandaran province. The current research aims to provide a model for the qualitative model of educational research policy in universities of medical sciences.
Methods: This research was of an exploratory type: thematic analysis in the qualitative part and a descriptive survey in the quantitative part. In the qualitative section, the studied population included academic (faculty members) and organizational (Islamic Azad universities) experts. The quantitative section included all academic faculty members of universities in Mazandaran province. The sample size in the qualitative part was 12 interviewees according to the saturation principle and the purposeful sampling method. In the quantitative part, 242 people were selected based on the calculation of the sample size in structural equations and the stepwise cluster random sampling method. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews in the qualitative part and a researcher-made questionnaire with 62 items taken from the theoretical foundations, research background, and interviews with experts in the quantitative part. The method of data analysis in the qualitative part was theoretical coding (open, central, and selective) and in the quantitative part, it included structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.
Results: The results showed that the university research policy variable had 6 dimensions educational, research, social and cultural, financial and administrative, international and environmental policies, and the educational policy variable included the dimensions of education content, education quality, finance, and budget. Monitoring and evaluation were political, social, cultural, and linguistic. The results showed that there is a causal and correlational relationship between the variable of university research policy and educational policy in terms of R2 values ​​with a value of 0.473 and a path coefficient value of 0.560 and about 56% of the components and dimensions of educational policy They are determined by the components and dimensions of university policy research.
Conclusion: In general, according to the results of the study, it can be shown that providing a qualitative model of educational research policy in universities of medical sciences can be of special importance in education. In the interpretation of this topic, it should be mentioned that the formulation and implementation of research policies in universities has a direct effect on educational policy and this relationship can be very useful for improving the quality and efficiency of the educational system. This finding can be an important point for university managers and decision-makers. According to this finding, they can formulate university research policies more carefully so that they can implement the most effective educational policies. In addition, this finding can be useful for increasing interaction and cooperation between faculty members and university administrators in the field of policy formulation and implementation. In general, this finding shows that attention to university research policy and its coordination with educational policy can facilitate and accelerate the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the educational system and ultimately lead to the best teaching and learning methods for students and faculty members. According to these results, it can be concluded that paying attention to research policies and formulating appropriate strategies in this field can facilitate and accelerate the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the educational system. Also, by examining this model and the connections between policy research and educational policy, university managers and decision-makers can make better decisions to improve performance and raise the level of education in universities. Finally, these results can contribute to the development and improvement of university policies to lead to the creation of an effective and efficient environment for teaching and learning that contributes to the progress of society and the social and economic development of the country.