Academicians Debate the University

Farshad Ghorbanpour Sheikhani, Rooz Online:

Finally after the numerous hurdles put up by the Deputy Chancellor for Cultural Affairs of Tehran University, the Social Sciences Academy held its Seminar at Tehran University’s Ibn Khaldun amphitheatre this week.

In her opening remarks, Bahar Binesh, the secretary of the seminar said, “These activities are aimed at saving the dignity of the University and the Academia.” She said that while positivism in universities had been narrowly defined as preparing students for the job market, the institution was not even succeeding in that. She stressed that such seminars were the last efforts to save the academy from its demise. READ MORE

Mojtaba Bayat of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat (Office of Strengthening Solidarity), Iran's largest student organization, defended the right to be critical by students and said that students are responsible to make efforts in separating ideology from government politics.

In his comments on the duties of an intellectual, Social Science University Professor Hatam Ghaderi said that the more academic one is, the heavier becomes the person’s responsibility to others, which in turn effects the person’s behavior in general. “If our behavior does not change, it is a sign that we are not knowledgeable enough,” he added. “Today we still find people who talk of supernatural forces talking to them. With such talk, how can we have faith in academic and scientific debates?” He said while most students these days participated in political activities, he called on them to engage I social and civil work. He added that the students demolished whatever they created.

Abdolkarim Soroush's message on "Freedom of Truth and Truth of Freedom" was delivered by his son. He had asked students to search for genuine truth to keep the academia alive.

Jamshidiha, the chairman of the department of Social Sciences delivered a speech on the differences and similarities between university and religious schools. Ebrahim Fayyaz focused on ethnicity and said that the Americans follow globalization and the Germans discuss inter-cultural communications and then compared European post-modernism with the debate over globalization.

Mousa Ghaninejad discussed privatization of universities and its economy while Hamid Ozdanlou delivered a speech on students' dialogue and the necessity of academic freedom.

Nasser Fokouhi's speech focused on natural sciences, human sciences and political power. He stressed that university and academics can not afford to surprise political power because politicians would pay a high price to stop that, while there would always be puppets to sell their information to power-holders, which he said was the most serious issues that would hurt the academia.

Ramin Jahanbeglou expressed his disappointment over the development of universities in Iran and quoted Emmanuel Kant that universities must pursue enlightenment , meaning that they should be institutions where free thoughts and ideas are utilized and exchanged. As the last speaker of the seminar's first day, Media Kashigar criticized the policy of racing everybody to the university, clarifying that perhaps students should be asked way in advance whether they really want to be intellectuals and academicians.