Higher education has recently faced new challenges and responsibilities such as higher expectations to contribute to national and regional developments, considerable cuts in public funds, and the highly competitive educational markets. Previous research has suggested a positive association between the development of human capital and capacity to deal with these challenges in higher education institutions. Yet, there are few empirical studies on the factors that constitute faculty members’ development. The main purpose of this study was to investigate faculty members’ development components in Agricultural Higher Education in Iran. Specifically, it aimed to explore the differences among faculties of agriculture on the components of their faculty members’ development and analyzed academics’ perceptions toward the current and desirable status of their development. Furthermore, this research examined the faculty members’ perceptions of the most influential component of their development. The population was 1837 faculty members and 280 of them were selected using the stratified random sampling method. The results showed that the faculty members perceived their individual development as higher than and equal to average. There was also a significant difference between universities on the components of their faculty members’ development based on their size except for their individual development. The analysis also suggested wide gaps between the status quo and desirable situations of each component of development as perceived by the faculty members. Furthermore, the faculty members perceived their professional development as the most influential component of their development. Recommendations are made to improve faculty members’ development in agricultural higher education particularly in Iran. Manuscript profile

Nowadays, there is an agreement among organizations that reinforcing of education leads to the improvement of organizational performance. The emphasis on the human capital in organizations reflects the view that market values depend less on tangible resources, but more on intangible ones, particularly human resources. The main purpose of this study was to design a model for faculty members in public Agricultural Higher Education in Iran. A survey method was used to collect data from nine Public Agricultural Faculties in Iran. Samples were collected from faculty members using a simple random sampling method (n=284) and a questionnaire was used as the main research instrument to collect data. Reliability and validity were calculated using Structural Equation Modeling through LISREL software, version 8.54 (above 0.7). Finally, a model was developed and tested for faculty members in Agricultural Higher Education System in Iran. The findings showed that contextual variables (i.e. personal, organizational, social, educational, and professional development) had direct impacts on the process of Human Resource Development (HRD). Furthermore, personal and organizational development had direct and indirect impacts on HRD (R2=0.70). Manuscript profile