"The New York Times" calls the BIHE "an elaborate act of communal self-preservation." The BIHE has received praise as one of the few examples of community-sponsored higher education service in a closed society, a non-violent, adaptive and constructive form of resistance against oppression and an example of empowerment through education. It is believed that the BIHE can offer many lessons to organizations and activists tackling similar types of exclusion in closed societies across the world. The effectiveness of BIHE to deliver curricula has been studied, finding it to be a "social space" that enables Baháʼí students and staff to remain academically and socially engaged; to bond and share with peers and colleagues equally suffering from religious persecution; and to live up to principles such as learning, community service, and resistance in times of socio-political marginalization as well surviving because of international support, community sacrifices, and individual resiliency.