Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant professor, Foresight Department, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies,
Abstract
Artificial intelligence, as the principal driving force of transformation in recent and coming years, has redefined the position of universities in global competitiveness and in the provision of scientific and educational services. Aiming to design a strategic roadmap for rebuilding university culture in this era, this article examines the changes in norms, roles, and customary practices in the higher education system. Such a transformation rests on three pillars—transformed leadership, faculty readiness, and access to advanced infrastructures—and has been reinforced by the post-COVID acceleration of digital transformation in higher education.
The theoretical approach of this study is based on conceptual synthesis and offers a staged model to describe cultural transformation. The model comprises three successive periods: first, high organizational flexibility with an emphasis on local meanings and actor networks; second, the consolidation of institutional rules and procedures for sustainability; third, a technological impetus in which data-driven infrastructures and nascent information architectures play a more decisive role in shaping organizational culture. Across all stages, mediating and moderating mechanisms—including transparent data governance, algorithmic accountability, enhancement of the faculty’s digital competence and literacy, and ensuring equity of access—play a pivotal role.
Based on this model, an operational, stage-based roadmap for policymaking, implementation, and evaluation is proposed, focused on three axes: building capacities for transparent and effective data governance, elevating the level of digital competence among all university actors, and reducing and eliminating access gaps in Iranian universities.
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