Change in Population Structure and Demand for Higher Education in Iran

In Recent decades, skilled and professional human capital has been observed as a key of economic development. Accumulation and formation of Skilled and efficient human capital requires to investment in higher education. Hence, development of higher education in a country through training expert people can be effective for improvement in business and economic development. Higher education in Iran after revolution has been faced by different challenges. One of them is the social demand for higher education that closely linked with changes in population structure. The aim of this paper is to provide best answer for this fundamental question what is the role of population changes in social demand for higher education after revolution?To this purpose, after the study of changes in social demand for higher education from 1983 to 2012 according to Iran's National Education Assessment Organization data, the role of demographic changes in higher education demand have been studied.The overall, results suggest that increasing infertility in 1976-1986 and declining fertility in recent decade have had important role in increasing and then decreasing in social demand for higher education. Transition of 1976-1986 Birth Cohorts to age of secondary school and demand for higher education had led to increasing in demand for higher education in 1997-2003 periods. Also, decline infertility in the late years of 1980s has led to reduce social demand for higher education in recent years.