(Part One: Pathology/Damage Assessment)

One of the most important statutory duties of the Academy of Arts of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to examine the shortcomings of the country’s education system in the field of art and to provide recommendations to relevant authorities (Article 2, Clause 10). National upstream documents assign significant missions to higher education. According to these documents, universities and higher education institutions must review and redesign all their activities—educational, research, and technological—in order to respond to the country’s challenges and needs.

In the general policies announced by the Supreme Leader, training skilled, competent, and efficient human resources in line with labor market needs, integrating education with practical skills, and engaging economic enterprises to utilize their capacities have been emphasized (General Employment Policies, July 2011).

Currently, concepts such as skill-orientation, targeted education, university-industry linkage, employer-required skills, economic profitability, economic entrepreneurship, and technological advancement remain ambiguous and underdeveloped in art universities. This has highlighted the critical need for a comprehensive territorial planning (Amaiesh) of higher art education and its reorganization to meet societal needs.

The “Art” academic group is one of the six main academic groups in Iran’s higher education structure, encompassing sub-disciplines such as architecture, urban planning, applied arts, visual arts, performing arts, and music. According to statistics, art students constitute 7% of the total student population in the country.

Monitoring conducted by the Academy of Arts reveals that the higher art education system suffers from insufficient attention to art as a unique academic discipline. This has led to serious challenges. The identified damages fall within the main components of the system: “Policy-making and Guidelines,” “Human Resources (Faculty Members and Students),” “Academic Disciplines and Curriculum,” and “Infrastructure and Facilities,” as follows:

 Policy-Making and Guidelines

- Absence of a comprehensive territorial planning document (Amaiesh) for higher art education in Iran

- Lack of mission-oriented approach in art universities

- Insufficient attention to localizing global art education models in Iran

- Absence of art higher education indicators in national development plans

- Weak mechanisms for linking art universities with societal and industrial needs

- Lack of a quality assurance system in art universities and neglect of educational quality

 Faculty Members

- Incompatibility of faculty promotion regulations with the nature, requirements, and skills specific to art disciplines

- Insufficient attention to effective in-service training programs to update faculty members’ knowledge in specialized fields

 Students and Graduates

- Inefficiency of the art student admission and assessment system

- Lack of admission criteria aligned with job market needs, skill development, and entrepreneurship

- Absence of independent surveys to monitor the employment status of art graduates

 Academic Disciplines and Curriculum

- Insufficient updating of academic programs and curricula in response to technological advancements and local needs

- Lack of art disciplines relevant to the country’s real needs and interdisciplinary fields (e.g., art therapy, psychology of art, ethics of art, sociology of art, art law, etc.)

- Uneven distribution of art disciplines and higher education institutions across the country, disregarding principles of educational justice and regional talents and potentials

- Absence of a demand-driven system for artistic theses and dissertations with a focus on real-world problem-solving

 Infrastructure and Facilities

- Insufficient attention to Islamic-Iranian architectural principles in the design of educational art institutions, as stipulated in the Comprehensive Scientific Map of the Country

- Neglect in modernizing historical and traditional buildings for use as higher art education centers

- Lack of up-to-date workshop equipment, laboratories, and necessary computing facilities

In subsequent sections, specific recommendations will be provided for each identified challenges.