317A Historical Glance on Higher Education
Higher education in Iran commenced when the Sassanid founded the Gondēshāpūr
University in 250 AD in southwestern presenting Iran as the center for higher learn-
ing. After the rise of Islam in the seventh century and under the Islamic teaching for
centuries, Iran was the center of excellence with such prominent figures as Sībawayh
(733–793), Khwarizmi (780–850), Razi (865–925), Avicenna (980–11,037), and
Al-Ghazali (1058–1111). Modern higher education in Iran, however, initiated when
students were awarded scholarships to pursue their studies abroad. In 1851, Amir
Kabir, the wise minister of Qajarides, founded Dar-al-Fonoon (house of techniques)
in Tehran. A number of teacher training and medical schools were subsequently
founded. Eventually, in 1934 the establishment of the University of Tehran marked
the onset of university education, in the modern sense of the word. Shortly after,
colleges and universities were added to the educational institutions of the country so
that by the1979 they added up to 26 universities, 87 colleges, and 226 higher educa-
tion institutions, admitting over 180,000 students. Upon the victory of the Islamic
revolution in 1979, the need for higher education was felt more than ever in that the
country had staged a path toward self-sufficiency (IRPHE 2012 ). From 1980 to
1988, Iran was preoccupied with eight-year war with Iraq and much of the country’s
oil revenues were spent on it. By the end of the war, government tried to answer
social demand for higher education through establishment of new universities and
institutes. While demand for university entrance was adjusting through a very dif-
ficult national exam, very little attention was given to the research. For nearly two
decades, various states in Iran tended to maintain quantitative expansion of higher
education. In fact, since the mid-1990s, the state’s attention was turned to the
research and promotion of Iran’s position among the Middle East countries.
Quantitative Growth
Since the early years of the Islamic revolution, there has been an attempt to expand
and propagate higher education in Iran. From 1988, President Hashemi Rafsanjani
had unveiled plans for establishing a new university called Islamic Azad (free)
University with branches in all parts of the county, including villages. Islamic Azad
University, the third-largest university by enrollment in the world and, according to
its website, with over 400 branches in Iran, was founded with this goal in mind. In
1988, the Payame Noor University was also founded and offered distant learning
and half-time education. In its early years, it mostly enrolled government employees
and professionals. Eventually, it opened its doors to other types of students and also,
for the first time, enrolled undergraduate students without asking them to take the
university entrance examination. At present among the total Iran population of 75
million are 4 million university students taught by about 70,000 faculty members
(Ameri 2013 ). However, in the early 2000s, Khatami’s state emphasized that the
18 Higher Education Research in Iran: Quantitative Development and Qualitative...