اقتصاد آموزش و جايگاه آن در نظام آموزش عالي ايران

Economics of Education and its Status in Iranian Educational System

While economics of education as an indendent branch of study has been recognized science the beginnings of 1960s, the history of ,economics of education in economic literature goes back to Adam Smith. Since then the scope and the fields of investigation in economics of education has expanded enormously. One of the basic aims of this article is to investigate the qurrent status of education in economic literature and the process of formation of economics of education and its changes with regard to its scope and fields of application. Along with this goal the status of economics of education within the Iranian higher education system is also investigated. The results show that (1) in the beginning, the dominate theme in economics of education emphasized on the effect of education on economics, but in recent years such emphasis has shifted to application of economics and economic analysis of production of educational and research services, and such analysis have been the central point of attention within the literature; and (2) despite of its long history and extensive scope of economics of education, the economy and educational system of the country is faced with no problems which calls for economists of education to address such problems. One of the main reasons of this status is the fact that neither economists of education have place within the Iranian higher education system, nor proper attention is given to research within this field.