Research in Medical Education

Introduction: Academic skill-based education is a basic tool for empowering citizens with high-level technical skills and abilities that can be used for national development. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of identifying the components of skill-based education in higher education with a qualitative approach.
Methods: The current research was conducted with a qualitative approach of thematic analysis type. The target group of the study was the faculty members of Mohagheg Ardebili, Allameh Tabatabai, Shahid Beheshti and Tehran universities. The participants included 15 faculty members who were selected by purposeful sampling. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data.
Results: The total number of free codes extracted from the content of the interviews was 113. After merging the similar codes with each other, finally 98 codes were extracted and classified into 16 similar sub-themes and finally categorized into 7 main themes. The categories of policy-making, skill-based curriculum, university mission, teaching methods, entrepreneurship, faculty members' empowerment and technology development were identified as the most important components of skill-based education from the point of view of faculty members.
Conclusions: According to the findings of the research, it can be said that institutionalizing skill-based education in the university can have an effective role in the employment of graduates.