Protest Gathering of Medical Students from Azad University in Front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly

Medical students from Azad University gathered on Saturday, October 28, in protest against high tuition fees and economic pressure in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Videos of this protest have also been shared on the Telegram channel 'Civil Protest Market'. According to reports, the students' protests began last week and have yet to yield results. Students stated that tuition fees for medical fields have increased from 30 million tomans to 90 million tomans, to which Azad University has not provided a satisfactory response. Reports indicate that a group of candidates for medical, dental, and pharmaceutical fields at Azad University protested against the tripling of tuition fees on Wednesday, October 25, in front of the Secretariat of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. Concurrently, Ghazizadeh, a representative of the protesting students, told ISNA that Azad University did not include the tuition increase resolution in the advisory booklet and did not inform anyone about it on any website or media. According to this student, officials at the Science and Research Unit informed new students to seek education in Turkey and Georgia. In response to these protests, the spokesperson for Azad University claimed that over 70% of students have paid their tuition and completed final registration, and only 5 to 6% of students are protesting the tuition conditions. Mohammad Ghorbani Golshan Abad stated that protesting students could transfer to other universities following administrative procedures. In this context, the 'Progressive Students' organization reported that the overall phenomenon of Azad University is fundamentally 'in contradiction with the concept of free education and in line with the monetization of universities, which has been underway for several decades in the Islamic Republic and has always faced serious criticisms and protests from students and their families regarding its high tuition fees.' The Progressive Students organization noted: 'What is currently happening is unprecedented; officials of Azad University have rushed to the highly demanded medical fields and, in a sudden operation, have tripled previously high tuition fees.' In a statement from this organization, citing a directive from the central organization of Azad University, annual tuition for medical, dental, and pharmaceutical fields has been announced as 180 million tomans, indicating a 200% increase. Additionally, an annual tuition of 45 million tomans has been set for nursing. The organization pointed out that these tuition fees are only for the first year of study and will increase by 15% annually thereafter. They added: 'Based on the announced tuition fees and their annual increase rates, the total tuition cost to become a general practitioner, dentist, or pharmacist at Azad University would amount to approximately 2 billion tomans over 7 years, while for nursing, it would be 225 million tomans over 4 years.' The Progressive Students emphasized that these figures pertain only to tuition and that other student living expenses must also be considered; furthermore, there is a possibility that the annual tuition increase rate may exceed the specified 15%, and tuition could rise even further in subsequent years. This organization stressed that Azad University's action to increase medical tuition fees multiple times (which may also apply to other fields) is a clear, legal, and organized plundering of the people's assets by the Islamic Republic government, depriving the children of the working class and many other social strata from entering such fields and paving the way for more 'aagha-zadeh' (privileged) individuals to enter the core medical sciences.