A Pathological Analysis of Policy-making in Higher Education: The Case of Testing and Admission to IR PhD Program

The admission process of students for PhD IR programs in Iran has witnessed significant changes during the last few years due to changes in policies: possibility for applicants from different/non-relevant academic backgrounds to participate in the entrance exam, increase in the number of students to be admitted, centralized exams based on multiple choice questions for all majors in Political Science instead of specialized analytical tests provided by relevant departments at each university, and an emphasis on previous publications of the applicants. These are more or less interconnected and have interactive effects. This article seeks to evaluate these recent changes in policy. The main argument is that they have led to a decrease in the number of qualified PhD students and graduates. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data, an analysis of questions of the centralized entrance exam, interviews with professors and students, and personal experience.