ATU holds the International Student Gathering Ceremony

Report by the Directorate for International Academic Cooperation –

(Source: ATU's Public Relations)

On Tuesday, 24 May 2022, ATU held an International Students' Gathering Ceremony in the National Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defense. Apart from President, Vice-Presidents and other officials from Allameh Tabataba'i University (ATU), the ceremony was attended by Dr MohammadJavad Salmanpour, Deputy Minister for Scholarship and Foreign Student Affairs at the MSRT; Dr Jafar Razeghi, Director-General of Non-Iranian Student Affairs at the MSRT; Dr Mehdi Vahedi, Vice-President for Student Affairs, and a group of non-Iranian students at ATU.

In this ceremony, Dr Motamedi, President of Allameh Tabataba'i University, pointed to international students' requests from the university and said: "We are thrilled to have you at this university, and the reason for holding this ceremony is to gain more familiarity with you and follow up on issues that might occur for you. Some issues cannot be solved by the university and need to be solved through other institutions. However, with the help of all sections and the support from the students, the university will do its best to solve existing problems, so you will have the least amount of concern to study here."

Dr Vahedi then said: "220 international students are studying at Allameh Tabataba'i University. They are from different countries, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Italy, Russia, and Turkey, and study in the Faculties of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages; Law and Political Sciences; Communication Sciences; Management and Accounting; Psychology and Education; and Economics. One hundred students live in two private dormitories reserved for non-Iranian students".

He then referred to the non-Iranian students' problems and added: "Facilitation of consular affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; cooperating with Bank Melli Iran to create the possibility for foreign students to open bank accounts; providing insurance for (A) and (B) Scholarship Students; facilitating the vaccination of international students to prevent Covid and measles, and pursuing the establishment of a counselling centre for international students have been parts of the measures ATU has done to address foreign student concerns and problems."

Dr Vahedi then added that they are looking to create a centre for international students to facilitate and organise their affairs. In the end, he asked ATU's non-Iranian students to avoid postponing their consular affairs to the last days so that the work process could be done better and faster. He also suggested that a team of international students pursue their issues and negotiate to solve the problems.