The Antecedents and Consequences of Market-Based Higher Education Policy in Iran

The market-based higher education development policy has been an alternative policy for the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology because of the university budget constraints. The increasing number of universities and higher education centers in the country and the increasing number of undergraduate and postgraduate students are evidence of this. With regard to the purpose of this study which analyzes the antecedents and consequences of the formation of the market-based higher education policy in Iran, deep and semi-structured interviews were conducted by scientific and practical experts in the Higher education system of the cities of Tehran and Isfahan between 2016-2018, and finally, seven antecedents: the origins, structural-political factors, background-cultural factors, professional-specialized factors, philosophical-existential factors, economic-market factors, financial-budgetary factors; and four consequences: deficiency in the academy, social problems, functional problems, and positive effects were extracted and named. Then their validity was confirmed through qualitative methods of credibility. The results of this research can provide guidelines for the leaders, policy-makers, and managers of the country's higher education and help to develop theoretical knowledge in the field of higher education policy-making.