Ali Mohammad Nourian Appointed as Interim Head of Azad University Following Mirzadeh's Dismissal

On Sunday, April 23, the Board of Trustees of Azad University held an extraordinary meeting and dismissed Hamid Mirzadeh from the presidency of the university, appointing Ali Mohammad Nourian as the interim head. Ali Akbar Velayati, the chairman of the founding board and the Board of Trustees of Azad University, announced the appointment in a decree on Sunday. Following the death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Velayati was appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic to lead the founding board and the Board of Trustees of Azad University. Just hours before this decree was issued, the Tasnim news agency reported that an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Trustees was convened at the request of four members. According to the news agency, the ministers of Science and Health, as two of the legal members of the Board of Trustees, left the meeting to attend a government session, but the meeting continued with seven members present. The Board of Trustees of Azad University consists of three founding board members, three full-time faculty members from universities, as well as the ministers of Health and Science, and the head of the leadership representation in universities. Ali Mohammad Nourian, the current interim head of Azad University, was elected as the secretary of the founding board in March 2015 by the founding board members. He previously held positions such as the head of the Civil Aviation Organization and the head of the Meteorological Organization before the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and was also the deputy for human environmental affairs in the Department of Environment during Ahmadinejad's second term. Nourian served as the deputy minister of roads for aviation and meteorology during Hassan Rouhani's administration. Hamid Mirzadeh, who was the secretary of the founding board before Nourian, was appointed as the president of Azad University in September 2013 after the rise of Rouhani's government. Mirzadeh was also the deputy of former president Abdollah Jasbi during his tenure. Before Mirzadeh's presidency, Farhad Daneshju, brother of Kamran Daneshju, the then Minister of Science in Ahmadinejad's cabinet, succeeded Abdollah Jasbi after much conflict in March 2012. Since 2009, the ownership and management of Azad University have been contentious issues between Ahmadinejad's government and Rafsanjani, the then chairman of the founding board. The Board of Trustees of Azad University stated in a statement on September 7, 2009, that 'all movable and immovable properties of Azad University are endowed.' In response, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, chaired by Ahmadinejad, amended the university's statute on April 24, 2010, defining Azad University as an institution with 'public assets' and altering the composition of its Board of Trustees, which elects the president, in favor of the government. Ultimately, amid escalating controversies, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, appointed two jurisprudential and legal committees to address the dispute, and eventually announced in mid-October 2010 that the endowment of Azad University 'has fundamental jurisprudential and legal issues.' Following this, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, in November 2010, changed the definition of Azad University from a 'public and non-governmental' institution to a 'non-private and non-governmental' institution, stating that 'members of the founding board, Board of Trustees, and university administrators have no ownership or personal benefit rights over the university's assets.'