Today the important role of universities to create “knowledge society” is widely accepted by many researchers as well as practitioners. In this respect, Badat (2009) lists the three important roles of the universities as production  of  knowledge  that  advances  understanding  of  the  natural  and  social  worlds, dissemination  of  knowledge  by forming and cultivating  the  cognitive  character  of  students, and undertaking  community  engagement. Accordingly, governments, unions, and universities make efforts to improve teaching quality in higher education (Ballantyne, Borthwick, & Packer, 2000). At this point, the vital role of academic staff for improving educational quality in higher education arises. They are the key resources and the significant components of the research and teaching carried out in our universities and thus their performance, to a large extent, determines the success of higher education for contributing to student learning and development of the whole society by means of graduates (Rowley, 1996).

Nevertheless, research show that difficulties faced by academic staff and their hard working conditions such as being have to achieve complex tasks in an increasingly demanding environment may be retarding for the intended development in higher education. There are also studies showing the negative effects of academic staffs’ workload on their responsiveness to societal and student needs as well as their overall performance accountability (Houston, Meyer, & Paewai, 2006). Consequently, in order to reduce the negative effects of academic staffs’ workload on their motivation and performance external factors including physical conditions in their working environment should be improved as a first step. The priority of physiological needs for individuals’ motivation and performance is also seen in self-actualization model of motivation, which is based on Maslow’s (1970) idea of self-actualization and accepted among the well-established models of motivation (Rowley, 1996).

Accordingly, the researchers of the present study aimed to examine needs of academic staff, namely research assistants, regarding their working conditions. More specifically, we sought answer for the question of “What are the perceived needs of research assistants regarding their working conditions in the universities?” For this purpose, a questionnaire including items about the working conditions of the research assistants in the university such as being have to share a room with too many colleagues and lack of a private place for meetings with the undergraduate students was developed. Besides its convenience, one of the reasons for selecting research assistants as the sample of the study is their vital role in helping university instructors in many foundational works such as pulling citations, reviewing the literature, grading papers and laboratory work and thus facilitating research and teaching in universities (Rosser, 2004).

Although the study investigates the needs of research assistants in one of the public universities of the country where the study took place, it has the potential to provide insight and needed evidence to change some practices in other countries’ higher education institutions that share similar characteristics and applications, therefore it also has an international dimension regarding applicability of its findings.

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