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the board in order to maintain a positive image and secure ation rates high as well, independent of actual student future funding, as well as to prevent low-performing de- performance. A paradigm shift instituted at a number of partments from being phased out. In such a case, it seems provincial , placing strict value on the quality of likely that an arrangement to pass everybody would be wel- graduates instead of their quantity, would help to raise the comed by the faculty. value of their degrees and alleviate the hierarchical nature which characterizes Chinese . Some Deliberations It is worth noting that a handful of newly established The expansion of higher has allowed universities that break with established patterns in student a record number of people to enroll in , and has recruitment and curricular requirements do in fact exist, brought benefits to society as a whole. Investments under- among them ShanghaiTech and Southern Uni- taken by the central government have raised the quality and versity of Science and Technology. It remains to be seen if international recognition of educational institutions on the their graduation practice will differ from, or fall in line with, Mainland. I would, however, argue that graduation being the vast majority. almost guaranteed is acting as an impediment to their fur- ther development. DOI: http://dx.doi/org/10.6017/ihe.2017.90.9746 As it stands, elite universities enroll the bulk of their students through the gaokao (the university entrance exam) and Independent Recruitment. Although the latter method allows universities a more flexible approach to their student intake, not relying on one single determining score, it is Politics and the Universities also prone to corruption. The most notable case in recent years is that of Cai Rongsheng. During his eight-year ten- in Postrevolutionary ure as head of the admissions office at Renmin University Saeid Golkar of China, he took in more than RMB 23 million (US$34 million) in bribes for enrolling particular students. Accord- Saeid Golkar is lecturer in the Middle East and North Africa Program, ing to the Beijing Morning Post, places at renowned universi- Northwestern University, Evanston, US. E-mail: saeid.golkar@north- ties can be priced as high as RMB 1 million (US$150,000). western.edu. Independent Recruitment has become a channel for un- qualified high graduates with strong official connec- he trajectory of Iranian higher education after the 1979 tions to get into good universities, where they will gradu- Trevolution can be divided into three phases. First, under ate regardless of their efforts. Under such circumstances, the revolutionary era (1979–1987), Iranian higher education assessment systems designed to weed out low-performing underwent a first wave of Islamization with the onset of the students during the course of their four-year degrees are Cultural Revolution and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988). unlikely to be implemented. Next, followed a period of reconstruction and political de- In the case of Renmin University at least, Independent velopment between 1998 and 2004. During that period, the Recruitment has been scaled down considerably since the regime released universities from ideological pressures, al- days of Cai Rongsheng. As numbers from the admissions lowing them to grow more independent from the state. The office show, 192 students were admitted through that pro- third period, the “hard-liner era” (2005–2012), saw another cess in 2016 (out of 2,797 freshmen in total), which is con- round of Islamization and recentralization of the universi- siderably less than in 2012, when that number stood at 550, ties. around 20 percent of newly enrolled students at the time. Given the huge pool of qualified candidates, it seems Higher Education during Revolution and War quite imaginable that these universities could achieve grad- Iranian universities enjoyed a brief moment of autonomy uation rates at the current level, without the need for any as the Pahlavi monarchy came to an end, but their role as particular accommodation toward that end. This would pre- political hotspots during the revolution quickly led the gov- suppose a transparent, merit-based admission process free ernment to assert control. Immediately following the 1979 of corruption. , government officials implemented As far as provincial universities and are con- policies intended to regulate and “purify” universities, to cerned, I am of the opinion that they would benefit from cleanse them of any trace of the Pahlavi regime. strict graduation requirements to an even greater extent. As University autonomy eroded under the Cultural Rev- of now, the impetus towards numerical growth in enroll- olution Plan. All universities closed for three years until ment and majors coincides with a mandate to keep gradu- 1982, in order to be “cleansed” of both political and reli- 30 Number 90: Summer 2017 INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

gious opposition. During that time, the Cultural Revolution in 1999 and 2003, suppressed by the militia and other vigi- headquarters was the main body managing and directing lante groups. the Islamization project. The council emphasized two stag- Although the state bureaucracy strove to implement es in Islamizing universities. First, it installed a pro-Islam reformist policies, it was met with relentless opposition by curriculum by purging institutions of any Western or East- Iran’s supreme leader and the conservative wing, who tried ern influence. During the second stage, it dealt with the to block reformist programs, thwart student movements, physical construction of the newly Islamized universities: and continue to Islamize universities. In 1997, the SCCR— all aspects of the institutions were to be modified to mirror dominated by conservatives and appointed by the Supreme Islamic principles and criteria. A variety of organizations leader—supported the establishment of a new Council for such as the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution Islamizing Educational Institutes (CIEI). The CIEI ratified (SCCR) were set up in order to oversee and govern the Is- many regulations, including a doctrine entitled “Principles lamization project of universities and expand it to the entire of Islamic Universities,” in December 1998. According to Iranian culture. this document, the Islamization of universities would be achieved through six different channels: professors, stu- The Construction and Reform Era (1989–2004) dents, curriculum and syllabi, cultural programming, edu- The technocratic government under Hashemi Rafsanjani, cational programming, and school management. The poli- who took power after the Iran–Iraq War, perceived universi- cies, which were rejected by reformists, were implemented ties as the primary resource to train officials for the state under the following hard-liner administration. bureaucracy. The Rafsanjani administration emphasized takhasoos (technical expertise) over taahhod (ideological Hard-Liner Era (2005–2012) commitment), which had dominated after the first Cultural An authoritarian populist, Ahmadinejad simultaneously Revolution. Rafsanjani’s pragmatism resulted in the dra- expanded higher education and political control over uni- matic expansion of higher . During that versities. The number of students reached to 4 million by era, many private universities were established around the 2013. At the same time, his government revoked the relative country. Enrollment in state universities increased from autonomy of universities, recentralized the higher educa- 407,693 in 1988 to 1,192,329 in 1996. tion system, and brought universities under political con- This trend continued under Kathami’s reformist ad- trol. During that period, the government’s efforts to control ministration (1997–2004), which saw an increase in uni- universities intensified dramatically. The MSRT, dominated versity autonomy and a relaxation of their political atmo- by hard-liner scholars, implemented all the CIEI regula- sphere. Khatami’s government tried to restructure the tions that had been proposed to further the Islamization of higher education system and increase its independence universities. from government. In 2000, the ministry of culture and The recentralization of the higher education system higher education was changed to “ministry of science, re- occurred at several levels. At the administrative level, the search, and technology” (MSRT), emphasizing its reach MSRT, not the faculties, selected university presidents. over research as well as education. The following year, uni- The Ahmadinejad government replaced many esteemed versities were given more independence in the preparation academic staff with fundamentalists who believed deeply in of curricula and syllabi. In addition, in 2002, they were al- university Islamization. The MSRT also replaced university lowed to hire professors as opposed to accepting state ap- management regulations that had been in place for 18 years pointments. Finally, universities were permitted to choose with the mandate that university presidents would select their administrations, including deans of faculties and deputies and heads of faculties who would implement uni- presidents, through an election process. versity Islamization. A gender segregation policy was ag- As in the Rafsanjani era, under Khatami student en- gressively implemented; universities were also required to rollment expanded rapidly, increasing from 1,404,880 in expand the implementation of moral policing and to create 2000 to 2,117,471 in 2004. The number of female students mosques and Islamic seminaries. In 2007, to enroll pro- in universities also increased steadily. Backed by the stu- regime loyalists, the government removed the autonomy of dents themselves, reformists opened up the political debate the universities in the hiring process and recruited ideologi- in universities and encouraged the political participation of cally driven lecturers. During the Ahmadinejad administra- students, a policy that was attacked by conservatives. This tion, student admissions were similarly centralized and the expansion of political freedom among students led to their admission of doctoral students came under the control of strong democratic desire to challenge the unelected bodies the MSRT. This control helped the government prevent po- of the political regime, as shown by the student uprisings litically active students from continuing their education and INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION Number 90: Summer 2017 31

facilitated the access of pro-regime students to postgradu- and social sciences. Despite these efforts, the state was not ate studies. Universities also lost their autonomy to design successful in creating an Islamic university. The expansion and prepare their curricula. The Committee on Promotion of universities and student numbers, the growth of infor- of Human Sciences Textbooks was established to “purify” mation technologies, and the fragmentation and deideolo- university textbooks. Many observers interpreted these ef- gization of part of the political elites are among the reasons forts as a second Cultural Revolution, which has eroded the why the project of islamization of Iranian universities has quality of . been a relative failure.

Conclusion DOI: http://dx.doi/org/10.6017/ihe.2017.90.9930 Controlling and Islamizing universities has been one of the primary concerns of the Islamic republic since its in- ception. This has culminated in two Cultural Revolutions that occurred in the 1980s and 2000s respectively. These policies paved the way for a massive brain drain and under- mined the quality of education, notably in the humanities

NEW PUBLICATIONS York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, University Press, 2017. 192 pp. lan, 2016. 196 pp. £100.00 (hb). (Editor’s note: IHE is no lon- 2017. 314 pp. $99.99 (hb). Web- $44.95 (hb). Website: www. Website: http://www.palgrave. ger publishing short book sum- site: http://www.palgrave.com. press.jhu.edu. com. maries, but rather is providing a more comprehensive listing Cramer, Sharon F. Shared Gov- Farrugia, Christine A. Open Marber, Peter, and Daniel Araya, of new books that will be of ernance in Higher Education: Doors 2015: Report on Interna- Eds. The Evolution of Liberal Arts interest to a higher education Demands, Transitions, Transfor- tional Educational Exchange. in the Global Age. Abington, UK: audience. We welcome sugges- mations, Volume 1. Albany, NY: New York, NY: Institute Of In- Routledge, 2017. 242 pp. £25.59 tions from readers for books SUNY Press, 2017. 273 pp. $85 ternational Education, 2016. (pb). Website: www.routledge. on higher education published (hb). Website: www.sunypress. $79.95. Website: http://www.iie- com. especially outside of the United edu. books.org/opdoreonined.html. States and United Kingdom. Musselin, Christine. La Grande This list was compiled by Ed- Cochrane, Sharlene Voogd, Kim, Eunyoung, and Katherine Course des Universités. Paris, FR: ward Choi, graduate assistant at Meenakshi Chhabra, Marjorie C. Aquino, Eds. Disability as Presses de Sciences Po, 2017. the Center.) A. Jones, and Deborah Spragg, Diversity in Higher Education— 304 pp. € 19 (pb). Website: Eds. Culturally Responsive Teach- Policies and Practices to Enhance http://www.pressesdescienc- Arar, Khalid, and Kussai Haj- ing and Reflection in Higher Edu- Student Success. Abington, UK: espo.fr. Yehian. Higher Education and cation: Promising Practices from Routledge, 2017. 244 pp. £29.59 the Palestinian Arab Minority in the Cultural Literacy Curriculum (pb). Website: www.routledge. Shek, Daniel T. L., and Robert Israel. Basingstoke, New York: Institute. Abington, UK: Rout- com. Hollister, Eds. University Social Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 213 ledge, 2017. 126 pp. £44.00 Responsibility and Quality of Life. pp. $100 (hb). Website: www. (hb). Website: www.routledge. Knight, Jane, and Emnet Singapore: Springer, 2017. 283 palgrave.com. com. Tadesse Woldegiorgis, Eds. Re- pp. $119 (hb). Website: www. gionalization of African Higher springer.com. Bader, John. Dean’s List: 10 Cottom, Tressie McMillan. Low- Education: Progress and Pros- Strategies for College Success. er Ed: The Troubling Rise of For- pects. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Baltimore, MD: Johns Profit Colleges in the New Econo- Sense Publishers, 2017. 269 pp. Hopkins University Press, 2017. my. The New Press, 2017.2 240 $54.00 (pb). Website: https:// 216 pp. $24.95 (pb). Website: pp. $26.95 (hc). Website: http:// www.sensepublishers.com. www.press.jhu.edu. thenewpress.com. Larsen, Marianne A. Interna- Barrett, Beverly. Globalization Diner, Steven J. Universities and tionalization of Higher Educa- and Change in Higher Educa- Their Cities: Urban Higher Educa- tion: An Analysis through Spatial, tion—The Political Economy of tion in America. Network, and Mobilities Theories. Policy Reform in Europe. New Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins New York, NY: Palgrave Macmil-