Examination of the Challenges and Insufficiencies of Academic Education in the Humanities: A Reflection on the Student's Views

The examination of the higher education evolutions and the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative growth and development of the state’s academic institutions in recent decades speak of the numerous challenges and insufficiencies which are rooted in the policies and approaches governing the state’s higher education system, unrealistic programs and lack of attention to fundamental planning principles in planning the academic courses and fields in the state’s higher education centers. Studying the weak points and vulnerabilities of the academic education in the humanities reveals that such a state of affairs in this academic field is relatively more alarming. Meanwhile, the undulant and breathtaking development of information and communication technology as well as the emergence of phenomena such as globalization, the disintegration and omission of some intellectual and philosophical boundaries and the formation of new paradigms have provided the grounds for the consideration of new university models in the third millennium and the emergence of new generations of higher education institutions. Thus, we are encountering with a new series of challenges and vocations along with our current problems and predicaments in our higher education system. These problems can not be successfully handled except by reengineering our higher education system. In this regard, making changes and reforms in the humanities and its adaptation with the above-mentioned conditions is of high importance. It requires the managers and administrators of the academic centers to make more efforts and take more serious actions. This article attempts to analyze the challenges and insufficiencies affecting the education and research quality by examining the humanities students’ views on the status of the discipline in the state’s higher education, and suggest guidelines for the improvement of research and scientific activities in the field.