Iranian universities in Arab states
Iran had also established a number of branch universities in the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai campuses of Islamic Azad, the Shahid Beheshti, and the Payame Noor universities.
As well as its branch in Dubai, the private, non-profit Islamic Azad University has also expanded into other Arab states, including in Lebanon where it opened its first offshoot in Beirut in 1994.
Syria had also agreed to open an Iranian campus, the Farabi University, in the north-west Syrian port city of Latakia. According to a book by Nadia von Maltzahn called The Syria-Iran Axis: Cultural diplomacy and international relations in the Middle East, Farabi University was to be launched as an international branch of Tarbiat Modares University, a wholly postgraduate Iranian university in Tehran. This was to be in conjunction with Syria’s third largest university, Tishreen University.
The Iranian-Syrian university was to have opened soon after the signing of an agreement between Iran and Syria, but the Syrian uprising that started in March 2011 seems to have affected this project. According to Syria's higher education action plan for 2012-2013, higher education projects such as Farabi were facing serious obstacles as a result of the political and security situation in the country, including limited funds.
Post a Comment