The Role of Linguistic, Ethnic and Local Identities in the Development of Higher Education

As a Country with enormous ethnic, linguistic and local diversity, Iran has great potential for national development and empowerment. Although usually perceived as a threat to the organization of national government and ethos, ethnic and linguistic diversity could be used towards such aims. This paper, based on research carried out in 2005, tries to show the positive implications of the diversity of Iranian society in the scientific development of the country. The article focuses on the territorial and global continuity of Iranian ethnic groups, which can facilitate trans-border exchange of students and lecturers and increase cooperation with various regional and international science and research organizations. The article argues that the management of higher education has not succeeded in exploiting this potential and, therefore, calls for action in four culturallinguistic regions studies; Azeri, Baluchi, Arab and Kurd. The article focuses on language and calls for a linguistic policy within higher education which would combine international languages, particularly English, with national and ethnic languages.