Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority, the 300,000-member Bahá’í community, from access to higher education by refusing young Bahá’ís’ entry into the country’s universities and colleges. Despite the pressure of the international community and numerous resolutions passed by the United Nations in condemning and expressing its serious concerns over the human rights situation in Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to maintain the ban on the entry of Bahá’í youth into public and private institutions of higher education. For further details about the denial of this basic human right to education, please visit http://denial.bahai.org/.
In 1987, in response to these uncompromising restrictions, the Bahá'í community of Iran has established the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). BIHE's vision has been to empower the Iranian Bahá’í youth to regain their basic human rights by providing them access to higher education. The foundation of BIHE has rested upon the needs of many enthusiastic students, and the devotion of Bahá'í academicians and educators who were also dismissed from their academic positions because of their religious beliefs. Over the years, BIHE’s homegrown program has evolved into a full-fledged university, which currently offers several undergraduate and a few graduate level degree programs. For more information, visit www.bihe.org.
Learn Across Borders staff have been helping the Bahá’í University in Iran by inviting, Associated Global Faculties (AGF), volunteer professors who reside in other countries.
Close to a hundred professor are invited each term to teach more than 700 hundred students online. Learn Across Borders staff have been facilitating AGF’s training for online teaching, purchase of textbooks, developing educational material for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and other academic subject matters, and establishing new graduate programs such as MPH and Chemical Engineering.
