Scholarship criteria in higher education from expert’s viewpoints: A qualitative study

Introduction: the scholarship domains based on boyer’s definition includesdiscovery, teaching and learning, application, integration and engagement, butit is a main question that which criteria must a scholarship activities have? inthis research, the characteristics of scholarship activities have been studied usinga qualitative approach based on higher education experts’ viewpoints fromfour domains [humanities, engineering, basic sciences, and medical sciences]method: the method of this research was based on qualitative approach usinga semi- structured interview in 2013. the sampling method was objective and14 faculty members participated in the research. data were analyzed using theexpert’s viewpoints.results: the analysis of the experts’ viewpoints showed differences, infra-disciplinecharacteristics. all of the experts reported that creativity, defining thecorrect problem and scientific reasoning were the first preferences and thennecessity for sharing knowledge with peers, not only through publishing thearticles but also in academic community in their universities. based on the experts’viewpoints, the research framework was designed using 6 main criteria,15 indicators and 43 items.conclusion: since reasoning and defining the correct problem are the first stepin beginning the scholarship activities and affect the quality, all of the expertsemphasize them. it is necessary to establish the knowledge sharing mechanismin the entire scholarship domain.