Alzahra University

History and profile

The university, founded in 1964, began as a private institution under the title of the Higher Educational Institute For Girls (In Persian: مدرسه عالی دختران) with 90 students. After the Iranian revolution, the university attained public status, and was renamed Mahboubeh Mottahedin after an Iranian Revolutionary who was killed prior to the 1979 revolution. Subsequently in 1983 the university was rename Al-Zahra University, after Fatimah Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad prophet of Islam.

The university offers 51 undergraduate, 83 graduate, and 31 post-graduate programs to 10,000 students. The university has ten faculties and a research center for women’s studies, as well as a branch in the city of Urmia (the capital of West Azerbaijan province) and two self-supporting campuses.

The faculties of Alzahra University are Art, Biological Sciences, Education and Psychology, Engineering and Technology, Literature and Languages, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Education, Physics and Chemistry, Social and Economic Sciences, and Theology.

The university initiated its graduate studies program in 1369/1990, under the supervision of Vice Chancellery for Academic Affairs, by establishing an Educational Psychology master's degree program and admitting 11 students. It then established five fields and admission of 36 students in 1372/1993. In 1373/1994 the Graduate Studies Affairs was established and commenced its mission with 158 students in eight master's degree fields. The first PhD examination was administered in Islamic History in the same year.

The university offers doctoral programs in History (Islamic History and History of Islamic Iran), Psychology, Economics, Research in Art, Chemistry, Physics, and Applied Mathematics.

Faculty members

The academic faculty of the university is a community of some 350 tenured scholars teaching and conducting research. The professors work in collaboration with visiting colleagues from other Iranian universities.

Collaborations with other universities

Alzahra University is a member of the International Association of Universities (IAU) and the Federation of Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW), and has established close ties and signed more than 45 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) for academic-research collaborations with accredited universities and research centers worldwide from a variety of countries, such as Pakistan, Iraq, Germany, Uganda, France, Russia, India, Kyrgyzstan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Syria, Libya, Belarus, among others.

Facilities

Alzahra University has central and faculty libraries with 77,000 hard copies of books (33,000 of which are in English), and 930 Persian and English academic journals. Among other facilities offered at Alzahra University are electronic libraries, professional laboratories, language labs, computer labs, an art gallery, an educational center, business incubators, pool and sports facilities, food centers and a traditional Iranian restaurant, whose building dates back to over 120 years. A post office, bank, travel agency office, cellphone services office, grocery store, stationery shop/bookstore and copy place are on campus

Department and research centers

Campuses

Research and publications

Eighteen academic journals are published by the university, such as Journal of Applied Biology, Journal of Brand Management, Women's Sociological and Psychological Studies, Women and Family Studies, Applied Physics, Historical Perspective & Historiography, History of Islam and Iran, Language Research, and many more. 6,000 theses and dissertations reside in the Central Library of the university.

International students

The university offers its undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs to international students. Around 50 international students study at Alzahra University, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, Syria, Tajikistan, and Tanzania. Some of the facilities for international students are: