Baqir al-Olum University of Qom

Baqir al-Olum University of Qom is one of Iran’s non-governmental centers of higher education that operates in the field of Islamic humanities. This university, which operates under the supervision of the Islamic Propaganda Office of Qom Seminary, has had a close relationship with the seminaries since the beginning of its activities and mostly selects its students from among seminary students. Examining the current issues of the world through the lens of Islamic jurisprudence and providing answers to the questions of societies by resorting to Islamic texts is one of the main goals of this university.

History of Baqir al-Olum University

The need for improving the level of political awareness of seminary students and better communication with the Islamic world and other cultures of the world formed the idea of establishing Baqir al-Olum University. The first unit of this university started its activities in the year 1984 by imparting short-term general and specialized training courses. From 1987 onwards, the political science courses of the Propaganda Office of Qom Seminary took a more coherent form and attracted many seminary students. Being admitted to the training courses of Baqir al-Olum University was conditional to being a seminary student.

Following the approval of the concerned institutions for the upliftment of this educational institute to that of an institute of higher education, after expanding its activities, it was eventually upgraded to a university in the year 1992.

Educational and Research Activities of Baqir al-Olum University

The following four faculties operate in Baqir al-Olum University:

• Faculty of Foreign languages: comprising four educational groups: English, Arabic, French, and German

• Faculty of Culture, Social and Behavioral Sciences: comprising three educational groups of Social Sciences, Strategic Management, and Cultural Studies and Communication

• Faculty of History and Political Studies: comprising three groups of Political Studies, Islamic History, and Cultural and Civilizational Studies

• Faculty of Philosophy and Ethics: comprising three scientific groups of Philosophy and Theology, Additional Philosophy, Islamic Ethics and Sciences.

The jurisprudence department of this university also engaged in research and education about the relationship between Islamic jurisprudence and the needs of societies by forming groups such as governance system jurisprudence, health system jurisprudence, social system jurisprudence, cultural system jurisprudence, economic system jurisprudence, and science and technology jurisprudence.

This university also published the following three scientific journals:

• Political science: The publication history of this journal dates back more than 25 years and by 2022, 100 issues had been published in this journal.

• History of Islam: Launched in 2000, this journal is known as the first publication of historical studies with a scientific-research rank.

• Ayin-e Hikmat: The main theme of this quarterly is research about different branches of Islamic philosophy and by 2022, 50 issues of it had been published.

Baqir al-Olum University also publishes three specialized journals:

• The Culture of Research: in which articles in the field of Islamic history are published and by 2023, the number of its issues stood at 52.

• Philosophy of Law: This publication, which is younger than other university publications (founded in 2019), is managed by the Department of Philosophy of Law of the university. The main goal of this journal is the scientific promotion of the legal system on the basis of research on Islamic jurisprudence.

• Theoretical studies of history and civilization: The plan to launch this journal was proposed in 2023 with the aim of exploring historical experiences to respond to today’s civilizational needs.

After providing the necessary facilities and preparations, this university received permission to admit non-Iranian students in 2020. In 2021, it made a call for admitting foreign students in the fields of cultural policy, strategic management of culture, media management, Islamic knowledge of Muslims, and applied ethics, at postgraduate and Ph.D. levels. This phenomenon has improved the level of international activities and cooperation of Baqir al-Olum University and has realized a part of the objective of its officials to be more present in international arenas and present their research findings to the scientific circles of the world.