Farzad Jahanbin, Islamic Azad University: “We would like to cooperate with KFU in a number of areas”
The Iranian delegation visited on 13 June.
The largest private higher education institution of Iran was represented by Vice-Rector for Education and Culture Farzad Jahanbin, Director General for Student Affairs of the University Mehran Salvati, and Head of the University Sports Center Amir Abbas Lashkari.
Consul General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kazan Dawood Mirzakhani arrived with the guests.
Timirkhan Alishev, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, introduced the guests to the structure of Kazan University and its main research areas, as well as talked about cooperation with scientific and educational institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“KFU has 10 partners in Iran with which agreements have been signed,” he noted.
The Vice-Rector also said that in 2008, a Persian language room was opened at KFU with the support of the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kazan (now the Center for Iranian Studies). Recently, Kazan University and the Center for International Scientific Research and Cooperation of Iran launched the Farabi grant initiative for the best research projects conducted jointly by Russian and Iranian scientists. Five projects have been selected this year.
According to Dr Alishev, 1,387 Iranian citizens are now studying at KFU, including 476 at the Preparatory School.
“I thank you for your visit,” Alishev said. “I hope that we will be able to build friendly relations with Islamic Azad University. We will have to decide what kinds of cooperation we can implement in terms of scientific research and academic mobility”.
Farzad Jahanbin greeted the audience on behalf of the Rector of Islamic Azad University Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, noting that he studied in Russia and kept very warm memories of the largest country in the world.
The Vice-Rector for Education and Culture spoke about his university, emphasizing that about 1.4 million people study there. The main educational complexes of Islamic Azad University are located in Iran’s capital Tehran, with some offices in the UK (Oxford), Lebanon, Afghanistan, and the UAE (Dubai).
“Kazan Federal University is one of the leading universities in Russia. It will be a great pleasure for us to cooperate with you, to conduct joint research, scientific conferences and seminars, exchange students and professors,” Farzad Jahanbin said.
The signing of a memorandum of understanding between KFU and Islamic Azad University was scheduled during the meeting.
“The world is no longer unipolar. And in a multipolar world, the role of universities is significantly increasing,” Farzad Jahanbin emphasized. “We would like to cooperate with KFU in a number of areas.”
He also noted that the two great powers – Iran and Russia – have a lot in common, first of all, in the adherence to traditional values.
According to the Dr Alishev, Iran is an important partner for Russia today, and cooperation between our countries is constantly strengthening.
“For Kazan University, Iran is one of the strategic allies. A big number of Iranians choose KFU, this shows a high level of trust in the university on the part of Iranian families who send their children to study in Kazan. Trust is something to be cherished. It is very difficult to earn and very easy to destroy. With the Islamic Azad University we have every chance to build trusting relations,” Alishev said.
At the end of the meeting the traditional exchange of gifts took place.
After that representatives of the Iranian university visited the Institute of International Relations.