Dozens of Iranian Professors Request Clarity from Rouhani on University Selection Processes

Dozens of Iranian professors and students from several universities around the world signed a letter addressed to Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, demanding transparency in the initial hiring process and the promotion of university professors in the country. The authors of this letter, published on Friday, May 1, on the website Khabar Online, close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, emphasized that 'opaque and arbitrary processes' during initial hiring 'under the guise of selection' as well as promotions and contract extensions for professors have been 'significant' and based on 'criteria other than their academic and professional abilities' in 'many cases.' The letter also states that the contract of Ghasem Akhiri Fard, a faculty member at Kharazmi University, was not renewed through an 'opaque process and without specific reasons' and that there is no possibility for an 'effective protest' against the university's decision. According to the authors of this letter, the officials at Kharazmi University also do not 'practically' take responsibility for their decision. The newspaper Shargh reported in Esfand 1393 that Kharazmi University rejected a physics professor named 'Ghasem Akhiri Fard' due to having a 'thin and feminine voice' and told him that 'a professor must be a complete human being.' 172 graduates and students in their letter to Hassan Rouhani mentioned their 'minimum' demand for 'clarification of the selection processes' and decision-making in university management regarding hiring and promotion of professors. The authors of this letter also requested that the possibility of requesting a review or 'expert examination of the selection process of professors by knowledgeable and impartial institutions' be provided. The publication of reports about the dismissal of this professor from Kharazmi University comes at a time when one of the announced programs by the Ministry of Science officials in Rouhani's government was the return of dismissed professors to universities. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency in 2005, a new wave of dismissals of university professors in Iran began, and according to reports, many professors were dismissed or forced into 'early' retirement. In this context, the return of dismissed professors to universities was one of the reasons for the impeachment and dismissal of Reza Faraji Dana, the former Minister of Science, in the Iranian Parliament session on August 29. Mr. Rouhani criticized the 'malfunctioning process of premature retirement of professors' on Tuesday, October 22, 2014, stating that 'it should not be that a professor is not free to express his opinions in class.' Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Board of Trustees of Azad University of Iran, also stated on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, that university managers do not have the right to 'create files against professors due to research discussions.'