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University of Tehran
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| University of Tehran | |
|---|---|
| دانشگاه تهران | |
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| Motto: | Mayasay ze amoukhtan yek zaman or: "Rest not a moment from learning" |
| Established | 1934 |
| Type: | Public university |
| Chancellor: | Abbas-Ali Amid Zanjani (...) |
| Faculty: | 1,500 |
| Staff: | 3,500 |
| Students: | 32,000 |
| Undergraduates: | 29,000 |
| Location | Tehran, Iran |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Athletics: | 22 teams |
| Website: | www.ut.ac.ir |
The University of Tehran (Persian: دانشگاه تهران), also known as Tehran University and UT, is the oldest and largest university of Iran. Its library is the largest in country. It is referred to (nicknamed) as "The mother university of Iran" (Persian: دانشگاه مادر).
Important seminar are held in this university. 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]
Contents |
- See main article History of Tehran University
Most Faculties of the University of Tehran were created by integrating already existing higher education institutions such as Dar al-Funun.
In 1928 however, 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.
Ali Asghar Hekmat in collaboration and consultation with Andre Godard and a team of European architects selected and designed the master plan of the university's main campus.
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. Other colleges and faculties were later either founded by or directly assisted and expanded by academic institutions of the United States.[2]
The university admitted women as students for the first time in 1937.[3]
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 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.
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
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 Social Sciences (~1972)
- 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.
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 Electrotechnic
- Center for Women's Studies [6]
- Applied Management Research Center [7]
- Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute
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.[4]
In 2006, University of Tehran won the title for the "advanced simulation league" in the Robocup competitions in Germany in 2006.[8] 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.[5] Tehran University appears at number 539 in world rankings on the THES ranking for 2007. [6]
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 negative image for Iran (on April 1, 2007), when radical 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 senior cleric became chancellor of the university, replacing Dr. Faraji-dana (professor of electrical engineering faculty). Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani (عباسعلی عميد زنجانی) is a professor in Theology and is known for his strong ties to Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1979 revolution. This is the first time that a clergy with no University education is appointed to head a leading academic institution of the nation. Although he has written several books and served for many years as a faculty member of the Faculty of Law as an expert on Islamic Jurisprudence, his academic credentials are contested by some members of academia. [7]^
See also: List of University of Tehran people
- ^ Link: http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=445096
- ^ http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v9f2/v9f224.html
- ^ Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995. ISBN 0-8108-2994-0
- ^ See report "بررسي نقش و جايگاه دانشگاه و صنعت در توسعه ي علمي، صنعتي و اقتصادي":[1]
- ^ http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=meast
- ^ http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1037148&Lang=P
- ^ The BBC November 25, 2005. Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2005/11/051125_mf_amid.shtml (in Persian)
- Higher education in Iran
- Academy of Gundishapur
- Nizamiyyah
- List of universities in Iran
- Dar al-Funun
- Tehran University of Medical Sciences, part of University of Tehran until 1986.
- School of Nisibis
- University of Tehran Website (English)
- Another guide to Tehran University
- Faculties of the University of Tehran entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica