A comparative study of the Ph.D curriculum in higher education in Iran with three universities in the United States

In Iran as a developing country, university administration or higher education administration is gaining popularity as a specialized Ph.D program. This program along with programs such as “planning the development of higher education”and “economy and financial management of higher education” was first initiated in one university, Shahid Beheshti University, in 2002. Thus, it is a very young course among Ph.D programs in Iran, and just during the short period after its establishment, the course has experienced some decrease in the number of the credits the students must pass before their comprehensive exam as a measure to improve the program effectiveness, but it seems still some problems persist. As a result, using Beredy’s comparative method and applying content analysis, the present work aims at comparing the curriculum for this program with those implemented in University of Michigan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and University of Texas at Austin in the United States and providing clues on the ways to improve the program .