Presidents of Iranian Top Universities Meet in Ramsar

The fourth session of the presidents/chancellors of top public universities of Iran was held Thursday, 3 September, 2015 in Ramsar with the presence of the Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology and President of the National Elites Foundation.

In this session hosted by Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU), Prof Hossein Salimi, ATU President, made a speech of welcome and pointed to the “crisis in higher education” in the contemporary world, saying: “Some scholars believe that novel technologies are taking the knowledge monopoly from universities, thus endangering the universities and giving way to a new variety of universities.” Salimi then pointed to the growth of universities and Howzehs in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and appealed for a reset in the Iranian university system, so the climate of the universities would gain their previous calmness.

Then, Dr Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, President of University of Tehran (UT) and Chairman of the Session maintained: “In a higher education system, all policies should be aligned to avoid contradiction. In the new period, university should play a serious role in the development of science and technology; university should be a link between science, technology and entrepreneurship.” He then added that “if research is conducted in a university with proper functioning with the aim of addressing the needs of the society, then we might say that the money spent on higher education is well spent.”

In another part of the Session, Dr Soorena Sattari, the Iranian Vice-President of Science and Technology and President of the National Elites Foundation, pointing to the social role played by universities, said: “Universities should both earn a great share pf their budget from the joint activities of firms and start-ups and have an active role in the knowledge-based economy, through training innovative and creative human resources.” He then recognized the main task of the universities to be the “propagation of the culture of valuating innovation and creativity rather than mere use of underground resources. If this culture cannot dominate, the State shall not succeed in its development.”

The fourth Session of the Presidents of Top Universities of Iran was held with the participation of presidents of the Universities of Tehran, Tarbiat Modares, Shahid Beheshti, Sharif, Amir Kabir, and Isfahan University of Technology, University of Isfahan, Tabriz University, Shiraz University, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran University of Science and Technology, Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology, and Allameh Tabataba’i University. The session was held in four sections with the participating presidents discussing the issues of Iran’s higher education system.