IRANIAN UNIVERSITY OF
MEDICAL SCIENCES IS
SWALLOWED UP!..
Iranian Health Minister Marzieh
Vaheed Dastjerdy made a surprising
statement and said that the University of Medical Sciences
in Tehran would be abolished. The decision to close this
university, which has been providing educational services
for 26 years, shocked the people benefiting from the
research hospital of the said university, as well as the
students. There are 6 faculties, 2 research centers, 2
institutes, 9 research/educational hospitals, 16 hospitals,
6 thousand students and 731 lecturers within this university
which was founded in 1974. Recently, lecturers were invited
to a ceremony which was to be held at the university. While
everything was ready for the ceremony, lecturers received
messages coming to their mobile phones which said “the
ceremony was cancelled”. Thus, it seemed meaningful that
right after the above-mentioned incident, a decision was
taken to close the university. It was considered as a
betrayal that such a decision was made without consulting
the university officials and without making the appropriate
notification. Moreover, the fact that the decision was put
into practice not at the end of the academic year but one
month after the new academic term indicates how an unhealthy
and unplanned manner the government had adopted in
conducting the policy-making process.
Health Minister Vaheed Dastjerdy
stated that the decision was made on the basis of a decree
which provides for the transfer of public institutions out
of Tehran. However, lecturers, students and authorities are
not satisfied with this statement. The Health Committee of
the Islamic Consultative Assembly asks the Ministry of
Health to inform the committee about the underlying reasons
for this decision.
It is quite thought-provoking that
universities where scientific researches are made are being
abolished one by one in a period when the country is
drowning in international sanctions and is striving to
become self-sufficient. The fact that a decision was made to
abolish the University of Medical Sciences following the
efforts to undermine the Azad University and that the
Beheshty University of Tehran is the next university to be
abolished suggests that the Leadership has considered the
universities as a threat.
The assessments regarding the decision
to close the University of Medical Sciences are quite
interesting. It is claimed that there is a struggle for
profit behind this decision. There are claims suggesting
that efforts are being made to take the revenues of the
university from the hands of certain sectors to give them to
the IRGC. In addition, the land where the university is
located near the Milad Tower is very valuable. It is stated
that the IRGC has some plans over the mentioned land and
will use it for commercial activities. Therefore, these
claims explain why the university is closed.
