in this study, a content analysis of documents related to the five development plans with regard to issues of higher education governance pattern has been investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of attention to the categories and sub-categories associated with each of the three patterns of higher education governance.

The research population includes the country’s five developmental programs and their supporting documents. The sample of the study includes a total population. Describing standard are the three patterns of higher education governance. The unit of analysis in this study is each of the country’s developmental programs and their supporting documentation and the unit of recording are statements, propositions, sentences and words that contain themes and concepts related to the categories and sub-categories of higher education governance patterns. The research method is quantitative content analysis. In this paper, by combining insights related to higher education governance patterns, three patterns were considered which are state-centered pattern, market-oriented pattern and academic self governance pattern (Humboldt pattern). In this study, each of the five development plans and their supporting documents have been separately investigated and content analyzed according to the higher education three patterns of governance. The results indicate that in the first program, state-centered pattern, in the second program, the state-centered pattern and market oriented pattern, in the third and fourth program the Humboldt pattern and in the fifth program, categories and subcategories of market-oriented pattern are  more quantitatively dominant.