The Conceptual Status of Higher Education Spatial Planning in Land Use Planning: A Guideline for University Development

This study tries to examine the conceptual aspects of spatial planning and also the status of higher education in spatial and strategic plans. Using a qualitative research method, the dominant viewpoints on spatial planning in the field of higher education were analyzed. For this document analysis, content analysis and secondary analysis were applied. The findings illustrate that the approach to higher education activities, as a sector, differs from those of other sectors as far as spatial planning is concerned. Yet, it is to be noted that although administrators in the area of higher education and universities emphasize on the importance of spatial planning in higher education, they do not seem to consensually conform on a certain concept of "development," "spatial planning" and " spatial planning in higher education". On the other hand, this is aggravated by the fact that the sector planners and administrators are not enough acquainted with such concepts which has resulted mainly by the lack insufficient theoretical information and poor relevant literature on this agenda as well as the lack of interaction between land use spatial planning and spatial planning in higher education. The unbalanced and uneven distribution of universities and higher education institutions during last decades and the present time can be considered as the typical proof of this claim. Given these trends and the strategies were emphasized by the country’s Development Vision Document as well as and its Comprehensive Map of Science towards the country’s science and technology development, especially in higher education, a number of recommendations have been offered.