UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN

The 'University of Tehran' (), also known as 'Tehran University' and 'UT', is the oldest and largest university of Iran. It is referred to (nicknamed) as "The mother university of Iran" ().
Located in Tehran, the university is among the most prestigious in Iran, and among the first options of applicants in the annual nationwide entrance exam for top Iranian universities. The school also admits students from all over the world and is known for its wide-ranging fields of research. UT offers 116 bachelor degrees, 160 masters degrees, and 120 Ph.D. degrees. There are 340 foreign students studying there.
The adjacent Tehran University of Medical Sciences, although administratively separate, shares the same main campus, and publishes all its scientific research under the name "University of Tehran".^[1]

Histories

Foundations

Click 'here' for videoclip about University of Tehran.

Most Faculties of the University of Tehran were created by integrating already existing higher education institutions such as Dar al-Funun.
The "Faculty of Medicine" for example, was particularly the successor to the Dar al-Funun Department of Medicine, established in 1851, which had become the School of Medicine (Madreseh-ye tebb) in 1919.^[2] Charles Oberling, a well-known French pathologist, was appointed as dean of the Faculty in 1939. Oberling was instrumental in bringing the hospitals of Tehran under the direct control of the Faculty of Medicine of the university.
The "Faculty of Agriculture" as another example, was founded on the basis of three previously established schools. The first was the ''Mozaffar School of Agronomy'' (the first modern agricultural school in Persia) which was itself founded in 1900 under the direction of a Belgian agricultural expert named ''Dascher''. The second was the ''Farmers School of Karaj'', which was founded in 1918 under the direction of a German by the name of Hans Scherike.The third was the ''School of Agronomy and Rural Industries'' (Madreseh-ye alee-e felahat va sanāye'-e rustāee).[1]
The "Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture" was founded by absorbing the ''School of Applied Arts and Crafts'' (Madreseh-ye sanāye' va honar), which had been founded by the famous painter Kamal-ol-molk, with the ''School of Architecture'' (Madreseh-ye alee-e me'mari). The first director of the College (or ''Honarkadeh'' as it came to be called) was Andre Godard, the French archaeologist and architect.^[3] The College was closely modeled on the French École des Beaux-Arts.^[4]
The "Faculty of Law and Political Science" was founded with the merger of the ''Tehran School of Political Sciences'' (Madreseh-ye olum-e siyasi) which itself had been founded in 1899, with the ''School of Law'' (Madreseh-ye alee-e hoquq), which had been established in 1918. Adolphe Perney (a French advisor of the Ministry) was appointed as dean, and the Faculty was directed by a cadre of capable Iranian and Western academics such as Dehkhoda, Gild Brand (from Russia), Sayyed Mohammad Taddayon (a Minister), and Julian Lafin (a Frenchman), among many others.

Formal establishment

And so it was that in 1928, professor Mahmoud Hessaby proposed the establishment of a comprehensive institute which could cover most of the sciences to Ali Asghar Hekmat, the then ''Minister of Culture'' in the cabinet administration of Reza Shah.

Faculty of Medicine commencement ceremony with Reza Shah.

In January 1933, during the cabinet meeting, the subject was discussed. Ali Asghar Hekmat, the acting minister of the Ministry of Education stated the following words there:
:''Of course, there is no doubt on the thriving state and the glory of the capital, but the only obvious deficiency is that this city has no “ university”. It is a pity that this city lags far behind other great countries of the world.''
His words had a profound impact on everyone in the meeting, resulting in the acceptance of the proposal. Thus allocating an initial budget of 250,000 Tomans, the Ministry of Education was authorized to find a suitable land for the establishment of the university and take necessary measures to construct the building as soon as possible.
Ali Asghar Hekmat in collaboration and consultation with Andre Godard, a French skillful architect - who was serving the Ministry of Education as an engineer, promptly began looking for a suitable location for the University grounds. By the orders of Reza Shah, the compound of Jalaliyeh garden was selected. Jalaliyeh garden was located in the north of the then Tehran between Amirabad village and the northern trench of Tehran. This beautiful garden, full of orchards was founded in the early 1900s during the final years of Nasir ad- Din Shah, by the order of Prince Jalal ad-dawlah.
The master plan of the campus buildings was drawn up by French architects Roland Dubrulle and Maxime Siroux, Swiss architect Alexandre Moser, as well as Andre Godard, ''Markov'', and Mohsen Foroughi. The influences of early 20th century modernist architecture are today readily visible on the main campus grounds of the University.
The University of Tehran officially inaugurated in 1934. The Amir-abad (North Karegar) campus was added in 1945 after American troops left the property as WWII was coming to an end.
The university admitted women as students for the first time in 1937.^[5]

Further growth and expansion

UT College of Literature and Humanities. The campus architecture also has influences from the architecture of Persian antiquity (compare to Persepolis).

After the 1940s, the university increasingly began moving away from the French influence and started modeling its structure and curricula after American universities. Many colleges and faculties were either assisted by academic institutions in the United States, or were directly led by American universities. The "Faculty of Agriculture" for example, was largely expanded with the assistance of the University of Utah.
In 1954, the "Institute of Business Administration" (Mo'assaseh-ye olum-e edari) was established with the help of the University of Southern California, directed by Harry Marlow of USC, offering masters and Ph.D degrees.
In 1958, the "Institute of Journalism" (Mo'asseseh-ye ruz-nameh negari) was founded with cooperation of James Wellard of the University of Virginia.
In 1965, a post doctoral program of cytopathology was inaugurated with the assistance of Johns Hopkins University.
And in 1971, construction of a new building designed by Abdolaziz Farmanfarmayan was completed, which housed the University's main Central Library which today holds nearly 700,000 volumes, a large collection of Persian manuscripts, many of them unique, as well as 1800 periodicals from all over the world.

Secession of the College of Medicine

In 1986, by legislation of the National Parliament, the university's oversized College of Medicine separated into the independent Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), coming under the new Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The university (TUMS) is currently Iran's most prestigious medical school with 13,000 students. However, close collaboration between the university and Faculties of its mother ''University of Tehran'' continue in many areas of research.

The emblem

The official emblem of the University of Tehran

The emblem of the University of Tehran has been modeled after this Sassanid stucco relief discovered in Ctesiphon

The emblem of the University of Tehran, which was designed by Dr. Mohsen Moghadam, a late faculty member of the Faculty of Fine Arts, is based on an image, which can be found in the stucco relief and seals of the Sasanid period. In this case, it is a copy from a stucco relief discovered in the city of Ctesiphon.
The seal symbolized ownership. In the Sassanid period, these seals were used in stucco reliefs, coins, and silver utensils as a family symbol. Since the alphabet of Sasanid Pahlavi’s script was used in these badges, they have the nature of a monogram as well.
The motif is placed between two eagle wings. One can also find these motifs in other images of this period, such as in royal crowns, particularly at the end of the Sasanid period. Crowns with these seals have been called “two-feather crowns” in The Shahnameh. The motif between the wings was made by combining Pahlavi scripts. Some scholars have tried to read these images. The script is in the form of “Afzoot” (Amrood), which means plentiful and increasing.

Campuses

At present, UT comprises 40 faculties, institutes, and centers of research and education. The university consists of six campuses:
# The central Pardis campus, on Enghelab Ave, is the oldest and the best known of the campuses.
# North Kargar Campus, where the dormitories are mostly located
# Karaj Campus
# Varamin Campus
# Qum Campus [2]
# Choka Campus

Faculties

Entrance to the ''College of Fine Arts''. The main campus' architecture was largely inspired by early 20th century European designs.

Initially University of Tehran included six faculties:

★ Faculty of Theology

★ Faculty of Science (1934)

★ Faculty of Literature, Philosophy and Educational Science

★ Faculty of Medicine (1934)

★ Faculty of Pharmacy (1934)

★ Faculty of Dentistry (1939)

★ Faculty of Engineering (Fanni) (1934) (Persian: دانشکده فنی)

★ Faculty of Law, Political and Economics
Later more faculties were founded:

★ Faculty of Fine Arts (1941)

★ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (1943)

★ Faculty of Agriculture (1945)

★ Faculty of Business Administration (1954)

★ Faculty of Education (1954)

★ Faculty of Natural Resources (1963)

★ Faculty of Economics (1970)

★ Faculty of Foreign Languages [3] (1989)

★ Faculty of Environmental Studies (1992)

★ Faculty of Physical Education
In 1992, the faculties of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacology seceded to become the Tehran University of Medical Sciences but is still located at the main campus (The central Pardis).
See Encyclopedia Iranica's article on the "Faculties of the University of Tehran" here.

Institutes

The University of Tehran gates appear on the 500 Rial bill of Iran's currency. They were designed by a UT student to symbolize science and wisdom.

University of Tehran also co-ordinates several major institutes:

★ 'Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics', which holds the national and UNESCO chair in Biology.

★ 'Institute of Geophysics'

★ 'The International Research Center for Coexistence with Deserts'

★ 'Institute of History of Science' [4]

★ 'Institute for North American and European Studies' [5]

★ 'Institute of Electronics'

★ 'Center for Women's Studies' [6]

★ 'Applied Management Research Center' [7]

★ 'Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute'

Awards and achievements

Many professors and students of University of Tehran have gone to win prestigious national and international awards. But perhaps the most notable of these is the Nobel Prize awarded to Dr. Shirin Ebadi in 2003.
University of Tehran has also been designated as a 'Center of Excellence' (قطب علمی) by Iran's Ministry of Science and Technology in the fields of "urban planning", "applied electromagnetics", "control and intelligent processing (CIPCE)", "petroleum", and "nano-electronics" (see here).
In 2005 and 2006, affiliated Tehran University of Medical Sciences was ranked the top university of Iran in medical research. In terms of the number of papers published, the 2005 ranking of non-medical universities of Iran ranked TU as number one in Iran, followed by TUMS at number five.^[6]
In 2006, University of Tehran won the title for the "advanced simulation league" in the Robocup competitions in Germany in 2006.[9] The university's architecture graduates and alumni are among the finest in the country.
In webometrics ranking, Tehran University is ranked second in the middle east, and the highest in Iran, in 2007.^[7]

Political role

UT's central mosque has been a center for religious and political activity in Tehran during the past 30 years.

Perhaps, to the westerner, the University of Tehran is most notably remembered for its key roles in the political events of recent history. It was in front of the same gates of this school that The Shah's army opened fire on dissident students, further triggering the 1979 revolution of Iran. But also has brought a bad image for Iran (on April 1, 2007), when students from the University of Tehran approched the gates of the British embassy throwing projectiles and shouting "Death to Briton".
It was there that dissident students confronted the soldiers once again, 20 years later in July of 1999. (see Iran student protests, July 1999) This pro-democracy demonstration described by Time Magazine reporter as "Tienanmen of Iran".
UT has always been a bastion of political movement and ideology. At UT the leaders of the current regime deliver their most potent speeches on every Friday.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the main campus of the university and its surrounding streets have been the site for Tehran's Friday prayers.
The political role of University of Tehran in the Iranian domestic arena has become so pronounced that in November 2005 a cleric became chancellor of the university, replacing Dr. Faraji-dana(professor of electrical engineering faculty). Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani (عباسعلی عميد زنجانی) holds no academic degree, and is known for his strong ties to Khomeini in the revolution. This is the first time that a clergy with no university education is appointed to head a leading academic institution of the nation. Even though he has written several books and has served on the faculty of the ''Faculty of Law'' as an expert on Islamic Jurisprudence his academic credentials are contested by members of academia.^[8]

People

'''See also: List of University of Tehran people'''

References

1. Link: http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=445096
2. Encyclopedia Iranica: http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v9f2/v9f224.html#v
3. M. Marefat. ''"The Protagonists who Shaped Modern Tehran"'', in Ch. Adle and B. Hourcade, eds. Teheran, capitale bicentenaire, Paris and Tehran, l992, pp. 105-108.
4. M. Marefat. ''"The Protagonists who Shaped Modern Tehran"'', in Ch. Adle and B. Hourcade, eds. Teheran, capitale bicentenaire, Paris and Tehran, l992, pp. 106.
5. Lorentz, J. ''Historical Dictionary of Iran''. 1995. ISBN 0-8108-2994-0

6. See report "بررسي نقش و جايگاه دانشگاه و صنعت در توسعه ي علمي، صنعتي و اقتصادي":[8]
7. http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=meast
8. The BBC November 25, 2005. Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/11/051125_mf_amid.shtml (in Persian)

External links

★ University of Tehran Website

★ Another guide to Tehran University

★ Faculties of the University of Tehran entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica

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