Challenges of Application of Value Chain in Higher Education

Although The concept of value chain has been developed first for accounting and financial subjects. But In 1985, Michael Porter introduced this concept as competitive advantage. The value chain concept is very compatible with the nature of industrial activities. Therefore, it is necessary to consider new dimensions for service organizations. The present study has been done with descriptive method and analyticalcritical approach. In this research, different models of value chain as well as their applications and challenges for educational institutions are introduced. In authors belief that methodological ambiguity, conceptual complexity, not considering the educational and learning theories in the model design, the lack of empirical studies, are the main challenges of the different models. This is the first comprehensive study in Iran introducing all the previous models of value chain and their challenges.