The Necessity of quality improvement in Iran Higher Education

Higher education in Iran has faced with two important challenges after Islamic revolution. Firestone is the historical underdevelopment in quantitative expansion of higher education and the second is rapid population growth, which caused high demand for enhancement of higher education. Of course, other factors such as cultural context and lack of job opportunities for secondary school graduates had also have played important role in demand for providing more places for university applicants. This situation caused the quantitative expansion of higher education to be considered as the first priority of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. Foundation of Payame-Nour University (distance learning), private higher education institutions, Islamic Azad University, e-learning courses, evening courses and joint diplomas with International universities were among higher education policies in recent years. As a result students’ population increased from 150,000 in 1978 to 3,500,000 in 2008. In Particular, increase in the post graduate studies, besides human resources development caused a great advancement in the research status of the country. There is no doubt that quantitative expansion of higher education in Iran is one of the most glorious achievements after the revolution, but at the same time along with expansion of students’ population and diversification of higher education systems particular ,in private sector, the quality of higher education should be of main concern for policy makers in this sector. This paper would review the most important challenges of higher education as the roles of total quality management systems encounter the involved factors