Representation of the Method of Realizing the Strategies of the "Document of Islamization of Universities" at the Operational Level

Introduction and Objectives: The "Document of Islamization of Universities", as one of the higher-order documents, has been issued to universities for several years. One of the challenges hindering its full and successful implementation is the absence of a clear action plan and realization model, given the multitude of strategies. Considering the current conditions and potential of each university, a roadmap for implementing this document and the corresponding strategic actions can be determined. This research, as a case study, presented a method for implementing the strategies of that document in the University of Gonābād. The first phase aims to offer a scientific, practical, and realistic method to assess the feasibility and prioritize the actions mentioned in the Islamic University Document based on the conditions of the studied university. To achieve this, a software tool based on the proposed method was designed in an Excel environment. The second phase aims to operationalize the strategy implementation methods of the Document of Islamization of Universities at the studied university.
Methodology: The research was conducted in five stages. The first stage involved pairwise comparisons of the nine goals of the Islamic University Document using the Group Fuzzy AHP method. Out of the 352 strategic actions in the document, 178 were identified as feasible at the university level.
In the second stage, three questions were asked of the experts about each of these strategic measures, in the form of a questionnaire and a Likert scale: the current state of the action, the university's capacity to improve it, and its impact on achieving the document's goals. In the third stage, the weighted gap for each action was calculated by integrating the results from the previous stages and placed on the vertical axis of the final diagram. The fourth stage involved plotting the IPA chart and analyzing the strategic actions based on scenarios. The actions were prioritized based on the IPA chart analysis. In the fifth stage, an action plan, including recommendations and steps for implementing the prioritized strategic actions, was collected from experts.
Findings: The 12 primary goals of the Document of Islamization of Universities were condensed into nine goals. The outcome of the first stage determined the weight of the nine goals using the Fuzzy AHP method (Table 1).
 
Table 1: The goals of the Document of Islamization of Universities and their importance weights




Row


Objective


Weight (Importance)




1


Deepening and institutionalizing Islamic knowledge and teachings in universities


0.139




2


Achieving the ideals and values of the Islamic Revolution


0.099




3


Producing civilizational knowledge, especially Islamic-Humanities sciences, and maximizing universities' participation in new Islamic civilization building


0.096




4


Deepening rationality and promoting free thinking and creativity in universities


0.117




5


Achieving scientific, cultural, and economic power in the Islamic world and region, and developing scientific interactions internationally to attain scholarly and cultural authority in the region and the Islamic world


0.1




6


Expanding interaction between religious seminaries and universities


0.09




7


Achieving a correct Islamic lifestyle


0.12




8


Continuous and systematic improvement of the scientific, technical, and ethical aspects of university members


0.11




9


Reviving and enhancing the role of the family in the education and training process


0.13




After inputting the experts' feedback into the software and analyzing the responses, the software output regarding the formation of the two-dimensional Weighted Gap-Capability matrix was obtained as shown in Figure 2.
The prioritization of actions was based on the sum of the capability percentage and the weighted gap percentage. Actions with the highest combined scores were selected as priority actions. These prioritized actions were those where the university demonstrated both a higher capacity for improvement and a lower current status, while also having a significant impact on achieving the document's goals.
 
Table2: The priority strategic actions for the Document of Islamization of Universities at Gonabad University




Row


Code


Action Description


Rank




116


5-19-1


Extraction, explanation, and development of strategies based on the Quran and Ahl al-Bayt to institutionalize Islamic culture


1




126


5-20-4


Monitoring cultural and intellectual movements and identifying influential centers of soft warfare infiltration


2




101


5-17-1


Diagnosis of the current lifestyle and designing, explaining, and promoting an Islamic-Iranian lifestyle for university students based on new Islamic civilization


3




200


6-10-1


Design and planning of joint educational programs and study opportunities between religious seminaries and universities


4




123


5-20-1


Explanation of the various dimensions of enemy soft warfare and the elements of the soft power of the Islamic Republic in university environments


5




Discussion and conclusion: Out of the 352 strategic actions in the Document of Islamization of Universities, 178 were identified as feasible at the universities under investigation. Based on the expert survey results, strategic actions were categorized as follows (Table 3):
According to experts' opinion, the 27 strategic actions to be implemented in this action plan can be categorized into 4 strategic actions based on their keywords and themes. Their list is shown in Table 3.
Table 4: List of Priority Strategic Actions (for which the action plan has been developed)




Priority


Strategic Action No.


Common with Other Strategic Actions


Total Strategic Actions




1


Strategic Action 116 (Rank 1)


Shared with Strategic Actions 117 (Rank 14), 119 (Rank 40), and 259


4




2


Strategic Action 126 (Rank 2)


Shared with Strategic Actions 123 (Rank 5), 124 (Rank 20), 127 (Rank 21), 125 (Rank 34), and 130


6




3


Strategic Action 101 (Rank 3)


Shared with Strategic Actions 104, 105, and 122 (Rank 12)


4




4


Strategic Action 200 (Rank 4)


Shared with Strategic Actions 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 137, 201 (Rank 25), 202, 204 (Rank 10), 207, 262 (Rank 6), and 301 (Rank 13)


13




Total strategic actions for which the action plan has been developed:


27