Analysis of development of higher education in engineering discipline during the fourth and fifth development programs

Expanding and appropriate planning in higher education is one of the criteria for economic and cultural development of the country. The higher the education of the society, especially the youth of the country, the higher would be the public culture and potential for better quality work. On the other hand, the heterogeneous, disproportionate, uncounted and ongoing expansion of higher education without providing the requirements will lead to reduction in the quality of education, increase in the unemployment, and the emergence of social and cultural problems. During the ten-year interval, 1384-94 of the two five-year of economic, social, and cultural development programs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there have been widespread changes in higher education in the country. Specifically, a significant increase in the number of students, in the number of universities and institutes, and in the number of graduate students are among the characteristics of this era. In this paper, analyze is made on the statistics and information related to factors such as the number of students, the number of universities, the ratio of students to faculty members, with emphasis on engineering discipline during the fourth and fifth development plans.  The problems and issues arising from such a large change in higher education are discussed and examined. Ultimately, approaches to overcome such difficulties are presented.