321Challenges of Higher Education Research in Iran
Despite improvements in quantity and quality of higher education and research, Iran
still faces many challenges. At first and with a time interval, both Sayyari ( 1994 )
and Rasian ( 2009 ) emphasized that Iranian professors are not paid high salaries,
they are not often hired for their talent or knowledge, promotions are often not
based on talent, and some faculty member are under-qualified with out-of-date
knowledge and skills. From management dimension, there exists a stifling combina-
tion of overcentralized, bureaucratic administration with few fixed rules and regula-
tions. Managers are reluctant to act and do not effectively plan for the future; yet,
there exist many stakeholder organizations which do not necessarily coordinate
their work, such as the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology; the Ministry
of Health and Medical Education; the Ministry of Education; the Planning and
Budget Organization; the Religious Education Center; the Cultural Revolution
Supreme Council; the Expediency Discernment Council; and the Parliament of the
Islamic Republic of Iran. This proliferation of authority reduces transparency and
puts managers and faculty members under extra stress and doubt (Arasteh 2001 ;
Soltani 2008 ). In this situation, one of most important challenges of higher educa-
tion research in Iran is university-society gap. In fact, many research projects are
repetitive, devoid of any practical benefit to society, and stored in the corner of
universities and research centers. This problem is quite normal. On the one hand,
university teachers – especially in the field of humanities – are more likely to avoid
research on real problems of society. Social and political barriers usually do not
permit to deeply research on problems of society, because many research findings
suggest change and reform in culture and politics (Farasatkhah et al. 2008 ;
Hamdhaidari et al. 2008 ; Mehran 2003 , 2009 ). Accordingly, humanities and social
sciences are in a sorry state in Iran. New elected president Hasan Rouhani believes
that political “red lines” that prevent both the students and faculties from expressing
their opinions candidly are the reason behind this problem (Adib 2014 ). On the
other hand, about 70 percent of industry is state-run, with the private sector so unde-
veloped and weak to invest on research. The state-run sector fulfills its needs by
purchasing technical information from developed countries with its oil profits. In
such a situation, there is no need for R&D as all needs can be met from outside
sources (Rasian 2009 ). So as Asefzadeh et al. ( 2013 :33) have pointed out, studies in
selected oil-producing and non-oil-producing countries show that the relation
between the average number of scientific articles and HDI is reverse. This inverse
outcome proves that the rise of human development in these countries might not be
due to, or associated with, the growth of indexed scientific articles. For example, in
the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait, despite the high HDI, the number of
indexed scientific articles is low, while in Brazil, with more number of articles, a
lower HDI could be witnessed.
Other common challenge is quantity-oriented thinking on academic environ-
ments. Ritzer ( 2011 ) in his book with interesting title “The McDonaldization of
Society-” says “The ‘publish or perish’ pressure on academicians in many colleges
18 Higher Education Research in Iran: Quantitative Development and Qualitative...