At the outset, the administrators and faculty of BIHE were mainly Baháʼí professors dismissed from Iranian universities after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Other faculty members included doctors, dentists, lawyers and engineers many of whom were fired from their jobs by the Iranian authorities following the Islamic revolution. The university also drew on the expertise of a small and anonymous group of Baháʼí academics in North America, Europe and Australia, who sent the latest textbooks and research papers, occasionally made visits to Iran as guest lecturers, and otherwise provided instructional and technical support.