BIHE’s Vision for the 21st Century

BIHE was born out of a need to educate those who were unjustly denied access to a university education. As such, the origin of BIHE is rooted in a spirit of purposefulness, dedication, and a belief in the power of true education. The unique circumstances surrounding BIHE, whereby professors taught without compensation, and all staff and students participated in the university at great personal risk, unwittingly forced the university to become a leader in combining on-line learning, traditional classroom instruction and preparation for a successful career.

Today the exigencies of higher education are different from the past. Rapid cultural and technological changes are creating new demands. At BIHE, we believe that through collaborative and versatile learning that emphasizes conceptual as well as practical aspects of living in a global society, challenges can be transformed into possibilities. Indeed, that has been the founding principle of BIHE.

BIHE aspires to make its services accessible to all Iranians, irrespective of their religious affiliations, and to be a useful instrument for the well-being and prosperity of the nations in the 21st century.

Our Mission

More than a century ago Abdu’l-Bahá in the Secret of Divine Civilization addressing the rulers and peoples of Iran wrote:  

“The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward.  The principal reason for the decline and fall of people is ignorance.” 

BIHE will continue to promote education and respond to the pressing and ever-changing needs of society and prepare its students to adopt an outward looking orientation in the arts and sciences. 

It will continue to strive for academic rigor, provide the best possible resources and conditions for learning and research, and be the catalyst for individual change in which the acquisition of knowledge, service to humanity and social progress are the goals of education. 

Today, there is a critical and timely need to reconcile the ideals of education with the development of an authentic sense of volition for transformative learning and the promise of a democratic society. In the words of Frederick Mayer: 

“To be proficient in knowledge is not enough. A new society of genuine democracy requires active learning and autonomous motivation. It requires a missionary spirit without fanaticism. The joys of culture are to be universalized, the benefits of freedom are to be shared, the citadels of ignorance and regression are to be conquered, the deserts of physical and spiritual poverty are to be transformed.” 

BIHE students and graduates will be trained to seek knowledge, to search for truth, beauty and justice, to pursue excellence in a spirit of loving fellowship, to become independent learners, creative thinkers and problem solvers, to examine dynamic interactions between scientific facts and universal values as a frame of reference for the meaningful application of knowledge, to appreciate the role of technology in laying the material foundation of civilization, and to draw upon the lessons of the past in order to advance new understanding for the future.