Gholamali Haddad Adel Criticizes 'Excessive' Student Enrollment in Humanities

Gholamali Haddad Adel, advisor to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and head of the Council for the Transformation and Promotion of Humanities, has once again criticized the 'excessive' enrollment of students in humanities fields and the establishment of doctoral programs, urging the Ministry of Science to 'do everything possible' to prevent 'excessive' student admissions. According to ISNA news agency, on Friday, December 5, Haddad Adel stated that student enrollment in humanities should not be compared to fields such as medicine. He added: 'This means that it should not be said that the country needs as many philosophers and historians as it does doctors, because a quantitative approach to humanities is problematic.' Haddad Adel has called on the Ministry of Science to 'do everything possible' to stop 'excessive' student admissions, emphasizing that such practices and the establishment of doctoral programs in many cities 'do not serve the country.' Previously, officials from the Ministry of Science in Iran have criticized the 'excessive and disproportionate' establishment of universities in recent years. For instance, Mohammad Farhadi, the Minister of Science, stated on Friday, November 7, that some universities in Iran are less than 10 kilometers apart and some have fewer than 50 students. According to Farhadi, contrary to existing advertisements, this year the number of applicants for university admission was 'very low,' with 600,000 seats in universities across the country remaining empty. Mojtaba Shariati Niasar, the educational deputy of the Minister of Science, also stated in 2014 that some newly established universities did not meet the minimum standards for establishment. Officials from the Ministry of Science have previously reported empty capacities in some fields at the associate and bachelor's levels in public universities, yet a nationwide entrance exam continues to be held for student admissions in Iran. Hossein Tokali, a senior advisor to the Assessment Organization, mentioned on October 30 that in mathematics, technical and vocational fields, humanities, and arts, there is a possibility of eliminating the entrance exam and admitting students based on school grades, but 'in fields with high demand, such as dentistry and medicine, this option is not available.' Meanwhile, Haddad Adel's criticism of the excessive enrollment in humanities comes at a time when Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, has called for a transformation in the curricula of humanities courses in educational centers since 2009, leading to significant changes in the fields and curricula of humanities in Iran. In December 2014, Haddad Adel, as the head of the Council for the Transformation in Humanities, acknowledged that 'the actions taken so far have not yielded satisfactory results,' but following Ayatollah Khamenei's serious demand for a transformation in humanities in 2009, a new movement in this regard began. At that time, he also expressed concern about the number of humanities students, stating that 'the establishment of humanities is low-cost and does not require expensive laboratories and equipment, and at the same time has grand titles, and the educated and uneducated are identified very late. For this reason, the growth of humanities fields is very high and illogical.' Earlier, in September 2009, the Supreme Leader pointed out that approximately two million out of three million and five hundred thousand Iranian students are studying in humanities fields, stating that 'this is a worrying issue because the capabilities of scientific centers and universities in the field of local work and Islamic research in humanities, as well as the number of prominent professors who believe in the Islamic worldview in humanities, are not sufficient for this number of students.'