Specialised Session on Internationalisation of Social Sciences in Iran

Directorate of International Academic Cooperation -

During the Research Week, a specialized session was held in Faculty of Social Sciences on Internationalisation of Social Sciences in Iran: Challenges and Opportunities. This session was convened on Monday, 12 December 2016, in Motahari Auditorium, Faculty of Social Sciences.

In this session, Dr Aliakbar Taj-Mazinani, Dean of the Faculty, congratulated the audience on the occasion of the Research Week and expanded on the research plans of the Faculty and its steps toward success. He described the status of research among faculty members of the faculty as satisfactory and insisted on the potentials of students and its application in the area of research. He then pointed to the relation between research and education, and introduced the social-needs-based research as an important social responsibility. Taj-Mazinani then emphasized the role of universities in providing professors and students with required means for doing research. He concluded his speech with some suggestions, including the empowering of those aspects of research that lead to the applicability of social sciences, and relations of different subdivisions of social sciences with industry and society.

Then Dr Mohammad Saeid Zokaei, Vice-Dean for Research, pointed to the growth and progressive movement of social sciences, despite the existing challenges, and its development as an important discourse in the society. He introduced the Research Week as an opportunity to strike a balance between education and research. Dr Zokaei described research as a stimulus for reflexive education, and as a path through which we can determine, highlight, discuss and solve our social and social-science-related problems.

In this session, top researcher professors and students were appreciated. The first three top professors of the faculty include Dr Ali Khaksari, Mahmoud Shahabi, and Aboutorab Talebi. Top PhD and Master's students were Ms Mahshid Talebi Some'esaraei and Shahabeddin Isalou, respectively.

The session was continued with the speeches delivered by Dr Shahabi, Dr Khaksari and Dr Masoud Alamneisi, on the topics of domestication, internationalisation, and globalisation of social sciences; urban and regional planning course; and definitions and criteria for internationalisation of higher education.