TOP IRANIAN SCIENCE UNIVERSITY PREPPING STUDENTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000809

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2016
TAGS: IR PGOV PREL TU
SUBJECT: TOP IRANIAN SCIENCE UNIVERSITY PREPPING STUDENTS
FOR SUCCESS ...ABROAD

Classified By: DCM NANCY MCELDOWNEY FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary: Two western-educated professors from
Tehran,s Sharif University of Technology spoke with us
separately about work conditions for faculty at the
university, including recent salary increases for professors,
and described the student body. They noted that for the past
few years, student political activity at the campus has been
virtually non-existent due to a government crackdown and
student fears of being arrested. Both professors also
suspected the return rate for students studying abroad was
less than ten percent. End Summary.


2. (C) Following a recent visa interview, we spoke with
Massood Jahanbegloo, professor and faculty member of the
electrical engineering department at Sharif University of
Technology in Tehran. Jahanbegloo has been teaching
undergraduate-and graduate-level applied electronics at the
university since 1979. In a separate exchange, we also spoke
with Hashem Mahloogi, a professor and faculty member of the
industrial engineering department at Sharif University since

1985. Sharif University is Iran,s pre-eminent school for
sciences and engineering. Both men have relatives living in
the U.S. who are petitioning for them to emigrate from Iran.

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Steady Work, Little Recognition or Remuneration
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3. (C) Both professors attended US universities for their
postgraduate work and described their jobs in Iran as much
like that of professors at other universities, with two
important exceptions: there is little opportunity for
interaction with their peers in other countries; and both
consider their pay to be far below that of their western
peers. Jahanbegloo noted that he had never traveled abroad
for his work and that it was rare for his colleagues to do
so. Mahloogi traveled to academic conferences in Asia and
Europe, but his last such trip was in the early 1990s. Asked
about foreign professors coming to teach at Sharif
University, both subjects responded that Sharif does not have
formal exchange programs with foreign universities and that
foreign academics are not interested in coming to Sharif.
Mahloogi added that formal exchange programs ended with the
1979 Islamic Revolution, and that now only the occasional
foreign academic comes to give a lecture at the university
and then leaves.


4. (C) According to these two, salaries for university
professors throughout Iran have roughly doubled in the last
year, so that Iranian professors earn approximately USD
10,000 per year. They were not sure why professors, salaries
had increased so quickly and said they have not seen similar
increases in other professions. Both considered their new
salary levels to still be far below what they would earn
working at western universities. When Jahanbegloo was asked
if the new level was enough for a family of four to live
comfortably, he said that it was enough to cover the basics
but not to live comfortably. As an example, he went on to say
that the current average home price in Tehran is three to
four hundred times a university professor's annual salary.
Mahloogi commented that the new salary is a definite
improvement but that he had not been paid for the last three
months.


5. (C) Asked if they had done research for the Iranian
government, both subjects said that it was rare for their
departments to do research directly for the government.
Jahanbegloo said his department generally does highly
theoretical research not applicable to commercial
applications and occasionally investigated theoretical
problems (not further specified) for the government.
Mahloogi said that he had never done research for the
government and that at the beginning of each fiscal year he
and his colleagues submit research proposals to the
university for funding.

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Student Body Focused on Study and Getting Out, not Politics
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6. (C) Describing Sharif University,s student body, the men
said that the university only accepts the topmost students,
who must pass rigorous entrance examinations. Jahanbegloo
estimated the total student body at about 5,000, while
Mahloogi put it between 7 and 8 thousand students. Over the
years both professors have seen hundreds of their students go
abroad for advanced studies but said that very few ever
return to Iran (Jahanbegloo estimated more than ninety
percent of students who go abroad for post-graduate work do
not come back). According to the professors, teaching and
work opportunities are far better outside of Iran and they
have former students now teaching at top universities in the
US.


7. (C) Both men said that student political activity had been
virtually non-existent for the last few years but differed
somewhat in their opinions as to why. Jahanbegloo said
students have been &scared8 since the 1999 crackdown on
student demonstrations and that now they are even less
inclined to political action due to their uncertainty about
what Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will do next.
Jahanbegloo said that Sharif University,s focus on hard
sciences (as opposed to political science and other
humanities) may account in part for the lack of political
activity; however, Mahloogi said that prior to the government
crackdown, Sharif students were among the most politically
active in Iran. Mahloogi felt that in the last two years,
right-wing student groups have become more organized on
campus and enjoy the favor of the government. He believes
that liberal student activists face serious threat of being
informed upon by the right-wing groups and thus refrain from
political activity.

(C) Comment: This description of the current atmosphere at
Sharif University seems to indicate that academic circles
there are focused on getting what they can from the
university and then getting out of Iran. If the mood at
Sharif University is indicative of the situation at other
Iranian universities, then these institutions of higher
learning, often looked to as possible sources of opposition
to the hard-line policies of the Islamic Republic, may not
prove to be the hoped for catalysts of political and social
reform. End Comment.
WILSON