University in the Mirror of History or Geography: Critical Analysis of Policymaking Dis-course in Higher Education System of Iran

Officials in charge of higher and university education, before undertaking policymaking and decision-making look for foundation and basis of their educational and research policymaking that enjoy a high degree of justification, legitimization and documentation. They therefore try to develop their evaluation of performance of educational system, or, in other words, evaluation of the quality and quantity of their decision-making and policymaking by heeding the requirements and considerations of the accepted foundation and basis. They also try to define the vision of higher education system in congruence with the dominant spirit of that foundation, which is called historical fundamentalism in this paper. This article, on the one hand, through studying the concepts and discourse analysis, is in search of enumerating the bases and principles of performance extracted from historical fundamentalism and geographical approach to university and comparison of the principles and bases of performance of university in the two approaches, and on the other hand, attempts have been made to criticize policymaking in university system in Iran during the past four decades which have been based on historical and linear considerations. This objective has been followed through geographical perspective to university as a favorite and ideal approach and by explaining the characteristics of approach to university through philosophy of space.