Ambassador of Portugal to I.R. of Iran meets with UT President

On 19 June, 2019, Mr. João Côrte-Real, Ambassador of Portugal to I.R. of Iran met with UT President and some other officials.  In the beginning of the meeting, after welcome remarks, Ambassador of Portugal referred to the good record of cooperation between Lisbon University and other universities in Portugal with University of Tehran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences as well. He further added that about 400 Iranian students are studying in Portugal and this cooperation needs to be further developed.  

Prog. Nili Ahmadabadi, President of UT also referred to the cultural and geographical similarities between the two countries. Then, he explained to the scope of activities of UT and mentioned that some of the programs at UT have a national mission such as in the area of earthquake, water, etc. He also pointed out that UT has active collaboration with foreign universities in post graduate studies, dual degrees, summer schools and Erasmus+ projects, science and technology parks, and foreign languages. Within such a context, collaboration with Portugal is necessary and we also confirm that these ties should be further developed.

In the continuation of the meeting, Ambassador of Portugal appreciated the efforts of Dr. Jafari Dehaghi on holding a conference on the presence of Portugal in the Persian Gulf. After that, Prof. Sefatgol, faculty member of Department of History presented an explanation about the conference which is held annually on the Persian Gulf where good researches about history of relation with Portugal is discussed.

President Nili Ahmadabadi also expressed the readiness of UT to support such conferences. Dr. Moshirzadeh, Advisor to the Dean of Faculty of Law and Political Sciences also invited the students from Portugal to come to Iran and do research on regional studies or do a Master’ degree program in English on Middle East Studies.

Dr. Valizadeh , Dean of Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature also talked about the readiness of the faculty to offer the Portuguese language as a second language and added if welcomed by students, and the educational materials and teachers to be supported by Portuguese side,  then work on offering it as an independent field of study will be put in the blueprint.

Also in this meeting, Prof. Ghahramani, Vice President for International Affairs and Abdolmajid Eskandari, Director General for Office of International Relations spoke about problems of visa for faculty members and students. In response, the Ambassador of Portugal said that  there is no specific problem and it will be solved in the near future. Mr. Soleimani from Ministry of Foreign Affairs reconfirmed the will of both countries to expand cultural cooperation including the Portuguese language.  At the end of meeting, UT gifts were presented to the ambassador.