Text of Speech of UT President at The XI Assembly of the Russian Rectors’ Union,26 April, 2018

In the Name of God, The Compassionate , The Merciful

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Colleagues,

Dear professors,

Mr. Chairman

I am very glad to be here as the president of the oldest, largest and most influential university in Iran, which is respected by all the universities and academic institutions of Iran and can represent Iranian universities in such an assembly and to speak to you esteemed presidents and delegates.

First of all, I would like to thank all the organizers of this major and important meeting and all the colleagues at the universities of the great Russia. I hope their efforts will be greatly appreciated and the forum will have good results.

University of Tehran is the first modern higher education center in Iran, with a continuous history of more than 164 (one hundred sixty four) years and with more than 300,000 (three hundred thousand) graduates and 49,000 (forty nine thousand) students who more than 60% are graduate level, has had a unique role in the social, cultural, technical and economic development of this country.

University of Tehran as a comprehensive university with nine campuses in city of Tehran and also in other provinces, from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf, offers a variety of disciplines and subjects to grad and undergrad students.

To be as pioneer in international activity in Iran as one of the highest number of foreign students from more than 50 different countries and running the dual degree programs with high ranked international universities introduces university of Tehran as an internationalized university.

University of Tehran has the highest contribution in knowledge production in Iran such that more than 10% of Iranian published papers in international journals belongs to the faculty members and students of this university.

Joint research institutes with several Iranian ministries and main Enterprises along with Science and Technology Park provide a deepen involvement and contribution of our students and faculties on the present Iran’s progress and development.

People of Iran and Russia, despite numerous ups and downs, have always had wide-ranging relationships and historical ties in a variety of fields, and the principle of neighborly in many areas have served as the basis for collaboration and cooperation between the two nations of Iran and Russia.

Close vicinity has transformed the cultural connections of the two nations into an indispensable principle that has never ceased to exist throughout history. Perhaps such relationships may have been sluggish at times, but nothing has been able to stop it.

Scientific relationship, in the general sense, can also be defined in the context of cultural relationship. Therefore, scientific exchanges can continue in all circumstances. Fortunately, recent trends in these relationships are very positive and it seems that with its continuation, we will see the expansion of deep and extensive scientific communication among the elites and scientists of the two countries.

In recent years, there have been spectacular sparks in the level of cooperation and scientific relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation, one of the most important events in this regard, the establishment of the Union of Iranian and Russian Universities and the establishment of the Secretariat related to the two universities in Tehran and MGU.  holding multiple meetings among the heads of major universities in Russia and the heads of 13 top Iranian universities. Over the past three years, three important and useful meetings have been held with the participation of the heads of major universities of the two countries, with the support and cooperation of the State University of Moscow and University of Tehran. The first and third summits in Russia and the second summit were held in Iran. University of Tehran will host the fourth session this fall.

The holding and continuation of these meetings is a sign of establishing lasting relationships and moving towards the expansion of these relationships. In the last three summits, a number of important and useful discussions were made, and a large number of memoranda were signed on the sidelines of the summit, with plans being implemented in this framework. As we know, the design of dual degree programs, joint research co-founded by two sides exchange of professors and students has grown steadily in recent years as a result of these summits. For instance, in the case of University of Tehran recently, three Iranian students were sent to the Moscow State University and eight students to St. Petersburg University, and the same numbers of students were sent to University of Tehran from the Russian universities. Recently Southern Federal University offered the establishment of joint research collaboration on the Caucasus study.University of Tehran eagerly welcome the proposal and we hope it to be realized in the near future.

The University of Tehran has long collaborated with the Moscow State University as it has been involved actively in the design and running three missions ranking world top Universities as offered and developed by MGU. In addition, University of Tehran now has 24 memorandums of cooperation with universities such as Tyumen, Moscow Transportation, the Moscow State Lomonsov, Southern Federal, Moscow State Linguistics Institute, Kazan, Oil and Gas Universityn of Gopki, Lobachevsky, Altai, Moscow Institute of International Relations. Also, the University of Tehran, with the opening of the Roski Mir, has started a new chapter in cooperation between the two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The University of Tehran, as a symbol of Iran's higher education, has defined one of the goals of its third strategic plan to be internationalization and defined various strategies for realizing it. This goal is "to promote the international status of the university and the effective presence in the world of science and technology ", which will be realized through the expansion of international educational cooperation, the strengthening of research and international technology activities, and the optimization of the infrastructure and processes of international co-operation. Therefore, the University of Tehran has put into practice the policy of developing international relations, and is pursuing it seriously. In addition to many prestigious universities in the world, the Russian Federation is one of our favorite countries to expand and strengthen international academic relations.
The scientific and technological interactions between two countries have always been of great importance to both sides throughout history. The current situation in the region and the world has increased the importance of these communications. Today, Iran and Russia play a significant and undeniable role at the level of regional and global political issues. This cooperation strengthens the level of relations in other areas and fields.

Scientific collaboration among scientists and researchers of the two countries in the form of exchange of professors and students, conducting joint research projects and launching joint training courses along with planning for the teaching of the language of each country in another country may be put on the agenda of Universities in Iran and Russia. Of course, some of these activities and partnerships are already there, but need to be strengthened and expanded to reach a desirable and acceptable level.

The fourth part of the forum, which is the subject of discussion of the international activities of Russian universities, is one of the most important debates in Iranian universities. I refer to the goals and plans of the University of Tehran, but what has been mentioned is, in fact, a topic of interest to other universities in Iran. Iranian universities need to develop international scientific interactions in order to develop science for the betterment of human life. It seems that the desire to cooperate among Russian and Iranian universities due to their scientific and technological developments and progress, the scientific policy of both countries, has been raised and encourages universities to expand their scientific relations.

Dear esteemed Presidents, Professors and delegations

The world is facing with many challenges today dealing with issues such as climate change, environment, water, poverty and increase of distance between poor and rich, peace threatening and so on.  To mitigate and overcome these challenges, universities have important responsibilities because science-based solutions are the best one and in this context the contribution of universities have the highest priority. These challenges are so big and important that can’t be handled by any individual country or university. Therefore, university networking and collaboration are of utmost importance. 

Before ending my talk, I would like to emphasize the willingness of the University of Tehran for collaboration with Russian universities using joint research, exchange of students and professors and joint education and it is my pleasure to invite all of you to Iran- Kish Island for the fourth joint summit of Iran and Russian University.

At the end, once again I would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Sadovnichi, chairman of the Union of Russian Universities, for the invitation that give us this opportunity to participate in this prestigious gathering to share our views and strengthening bilateral and mutual collaboration and partnership.

I wish this meeting to have significant success and to be quite productive.

Thank you very much for your attention