Today, most high education experts consider value creation (a term different from entrepreneurship or entrepreneur) as a condition necessary for the survival and development of universities and higher education systems. In this era of advanced technologies and knowledge-based industries in global, regional, national and even local economies, universities can only cope with current widespread crises by strengthening their relationship with industries. The purpose of this study is to design a ‘Value- Creation university’ model with emphasis on indicators of higher education system. Mixed method (combination of exploratory plan and taxonomy development plan) was applied in this study terms of purpose and implementation. The statistical population consisted of two qualitative and quantitative groups. For the qualitative group, 15 individuals were selected from academic experts and professors in Golestan Province while for the quantitative group 140 individuals were selected from the staff of Ali Abad Katoul University. The selected sample volume based on Morgan's formula was 103. Sampling in the present study was judgmental or purposive at the first stage and simple at the second stage. The research tool used was a questionnaire. Data analysis was done manually in the qualitative part using Grounded method (open-axis-selective coding) while for the quantitative part structural equation method was used together with SPSS and Amos software. The results show that (1) interventionist conditions with focus on the indicators of higher education system, that is, structural component, have a positive effect on the central category, (2) central category has a positive effect on the encouragement, financial and pragmatic strategies, (3) strategies have positive impact on individual and social outcomes, (4) intra-organizational platforms have positive impact on central category and (5) the causal category, namely the indicators of the value creation in universities and the evolution of the higher education system, has a positive effect on the central category.

 

Key words: Value Creation, University, evolution indicators, higher education system, Ali Abad Katoul, Iran.