Positive Discrimination in Higher Education with Emphasis on Special Quotas

The general rule governing over the legal systems of the most countries in the world is based on equal protection of people before law and their enjoyment of rights and obligations. This same rule governs higher education system in Iran. However, existence of certain discriminations in the higher education system in Iran due to various reasons, including inappropriate distribution of educational facilities, has made the government to deal with such discriminations. To this end, it tries to dilute the adverse effects of such discriminations and resolve them by resorting to quota system. Positive discrimination is a process by recourse to which the government can achieve this goal. However, two relevant questions arise:1. Is it possible to allow positive discrimination in the higher education system of Iran?2. Can all such actions be elaborated under positive discrimination? In elaboration of positive discrimination, this paper tries to make an analytical examination of the principles and measures adopted to exercise positive discrimination in the higher education system of Iran.