teaching and research productivity in tarbiat modarres university

background: universities play an important role in training people to meet the community demands for skilled manpower. furthermore, it is a fact known that universities do most of the research projects in iran and in most countries through out the world. it is, therefore, important to know about teaching and research productivity in universities and to determine this productivity. theoretically, a systemic approach is considered to be necessary for productivity measurement in an academic setting. purpose: this study was undertaken to measure teaching and research productivity in tarbiat modarres university. methods: we developed the method based on relatively simple and commonly used partial productivity ratios in universities, which can be easily achieved. so, the decision to measure total productivity based on partial productivity in one year period was made. we used a delphi investigation for compiling data needed for calculating partial productivities. results: teaching productivity in tarbiat modarres university was found to have increased by 87% and research productivity was found to have increased by 1133% during the period between 1985 and 1992. there has been almost 84% increase in teaching and research productivity in the same period. conclusion: results of this study demonstrate that there has been a considerable increase in teaching and research productivity in tarbiat modarres university from 1985 to 1992. the method that we used for productivity measurement has produced what we believe to be valid results, and our hope is that other researchers will benefit from our attempt at quantification by using out methodology, and we wish they develop it further.