A review team in humanities and social sciences has been set up to assess the curriculum in the fields of philosophy, political science, women’s studies, psychology and other subjects in the liberal arts.
Dr Manuchehr Ahmadi, a member of the working group of Humanities Transformation Council and a board member of Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) said that “from among 90 titles in the political science curriculum, 48 are completely new,” Khabaronline reported.
Dr Mohammad Ishaqi, head of the council’s women’s studies working group said two new subfields have been added at the master’s degree level including, ‘women’s right in Islam’ and ‘women and family’ which were approved by the council and the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.
“So far, 15 new books have been introduced for the new subfields,” he added.
Mohammad Reza Mokhber Dezfuli, former head of the council’s psychology working group said that the working group has recommended some changes to the existing undergraduate and graduate curricula.
“Unlike in the past, at present, the BA level in psychology major doesn’t have any subfields. At the master’s level some new subfields have been added to the current existing ones including Islamic psychology and family therapy psychology.”
“Some other subfields are also being assessed to be added in the near future such as psychology of religion,” Dezfuli said.
Currently, the existing subfields of psychology at the master’s level include clinical psychology, general psychology, family therapy psychology, psychometric, industrial and organizational psychology, clinical child psychology and Islamic psychology.
Specialized Skills
“We can identify a lot of subfields within social sciences and humanities. When we increase the number of subfields, we provide an opportunity to young students to attain specialized vocational skills and concentrate on their field of interest at the master’s level, instead of learning general information which may be irrelevant,” he said.
However, adding new subfields is subject to comprehensive books on the subjects and university teachers who are able to teach them. There are many subfields which can be gradually added to the universities’ educational programs, he said.
As an example, at present, areas of economic psychology, social psychology, cognitive psychology and neuroscience, organizational psychology, clinical and educational psychology and legal psychology are being taught in Germany.
The Humanities Transformation Council was formed in 2010 by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council. The council comprises 16 working groups in education, history, training, sociology, psychology, law, foreign languages, political sciences, economic sciences, philosophy, philosophy of religion, women’s studies, management, architecture, art and culture, communication and media.
Dr. Mojtaba Shariati Niyasar, deputy science minister had recently announced that 98% of academic majors in humanities had been reviewed and the process of reviewing the remaining fields will be completed soon.
