¹Faculty of Education & Psychology, University of Shahid Chamran, Khozestan, Ahvaz, Iran. E-mail: ymehr@hotmail.com

Abstract

This article focuses on new reforms in Iran's higher education management system — Transition from centralized to decentralized (University-Based management — UBM). This is an important subject since Iran's Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) has begun to introduce new reforms for the improvement and the enhancement of Iranian universities' management and movement it toward an independent and self-regulated system. The article examines new management reform in three key areas: university financing, quality and operational performance, and organization or the university system. It may be interpreted within a framework of planned, political–dialectical model, and socio-cultural model. Does this mean a move from idealism to a realistic perspective in relation to the problems and issues of universities in Iran? In addition, enabling conditions and barriers involved in implementing the new reforms are discussed.