Methodological positivism and split narrative of university and society: A critical study of the Book “The Ventures of University in Iran” by Maghsoud Farasatkhah

The book " The Ventures of University" written by Maghsoud Farasatkhah is undoubtedly a reference book and research and education handbook in the field of university studies and historical and sociological studies of higher education in the Persian language, written by one of the most prominent scholars of the field in Iran. This book, under the title "Historical study of higher education and the economic, social, political and cultural developments affecting it", supposed to achieve two different but related goals: providing a comprehensive historical report of the institute of university in Iran, and providing a sociological analysis of its formation. It is the pursuit of this double goal that has increased the volume of the book to 780 pages, in addition to the fact that each of the eight chapters of the book, which covers a wide range from the ancient to the contemporary period in Iran and the world, in addition to the descriptive and analytical history of higher education, contains extensive material of the history of political, social, economic and cultural developments at every stage. However, a careful examination of the book shows that Farastkhah has not succeeded in the second goal of the book, which is to establish a connection between the external social changes and the internal developments of the institution of higher education, and this weakness, of course, has also undermined the historical narrative of the book. Despite the great effort and details, the book suffers from a fundamental split between the inside and outside of the educational institution, academic history, planning and administration of higher education; with the political, social, economic and cultural environment. This gap roots in the "positivist essentialism" in research methodology, and transhistorical and  transcendence understanding of the rational institution of the university which has prevented the realization of the second goal, i.e. reading university in the context of society, and so, has reduced the institution of university to just a tertiary educating institute by neglecting the epistemic, cultural and political implications of academic construction.