Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Nomination

The university was established in 1949 and used the title Razavi University (the term “Razavi” refers to Imam Reza holly shrine in Mashhad) and then Mashhad University. After Ferdowsi's tomb was opened again on April 30, 1968 following renovation and retrofitting, Mashhad University named Ferdowsi University on 1974; however after the Islamic Revolution, Ferdowsi University was renamed Mashhad University and recently it is called Ferdowsi University of Mashhad again.

Mission

The mission of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad is to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society based on divine principles of Islam and scientifically qualified centers of excellence. FUM has a few mosques, the most prominent of which is the mosque of Imam Reza (which was built a few years ago).

History

If the efforts to upgrade the college of Health to the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 is regarded as the first step in establishing Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, the university could be the fourth oldest university after the University of Tehran (1934), University of Tabriz (1947), Shiraz University (1946) University of Isfahan (1946) (there are however other academic collages established before (e.g. West Minster Medical College founded in 1878, currently Urmia University)). However Mashhad Faculty of Medicine, officially opened on November 23, 1949, is thought to belong to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, which merged with Faculty of Literature to form the University of Mashhad in 1954 when the new Faculty opened with 5 different fields. With the expansion of higher education the following faculties also were established one after another: Faculty of Theology, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Nutrition, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Engineering, the Institute of Optometry, the university's high school, the Teaching Center. Mashhad University of that time was renamed Ferdowsi University in 1974.

After emerging regional health organizations in the universities of medical sciences in 1994, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences was separated from Ferdowsi University. Meanwhile, a number of new faculties and schools such as Faculty of Administration and Economics, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Shirvan Agricultural College, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Neishaboor Faculty of the Arts, Institute of Plantation Science, The Seismology Research Center, the University's College, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning were established one after the another.

School of Letters and Humanities

Founded in 1955, the School of Letters and Humanities, the nucleus and first school of the current FUM, offers graduate and postgraduate degrees in the fields of the Persian language and literature, English language and literature, Arabic language and literature, French language and literature, Russian language and literature, geography, Iranian history, social sciences, and linguistics. The Faculty has 83 academic members, 4500 undergraduate and 500 graduate students. The departments offer B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. programs. Moreover, the Department of Persian Language and Literature is designated by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, as a Center of Excellence in Ferdowsi Studies.

School of Economics and Business Administration

Founded in 1987, the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration currently has 53 faculty members and 2146 students. The programs offered at the Bachelor's and Master's levels are Economic Science, Law, Accounting, Political Science, and Management. The Research Center for the Economy of Eastern Iran and Neighboring Countries was established in 2006 for the purpose of conducting research into the economy of Iran and the neighboring countries. The Center has 11 economics specialists actively engaged in multifarious research projects. Majors and programs offered in the Faculty of Economics

School of Theology

Founded in 1958, the School of Theology has 48 faculty members and comprises five departments: Islamic History and Civilization, Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Jurisprudence, Koranic Studies, and Comparative Religion and Mysticism. The school offers programs at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. levels.

School of Sciences

Established in 1961, the School of Sciences has 97 faculty members, 1862 undergraduates, 325 Master's students, and 81 Ph.D. students. The faculty comprises four departments: Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics. Of these, the Department of Geology is introduced as a Center of Excellence in Fossilology by the Iranian Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology. The research centers at the School of Sciences include the Center for Research in Seismology, Center for Research in Rodentology, Center for Research in Nanotechnology, Center for Research in Biotechnology (Stem Cell & Molecular Research) and Center for Research in Environmental Chemistry to name but a few.

School of Mathematical Sciences

Founded in 1996, the School of Mathematical Sciences has three departments: Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics and Statistics. The school has 45 academic members and approximately 1300 students. Currently, there are 170 graduate enrollees. The School of Mathematical Sciences offers three programs specializing in Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. levels. Both the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics were awarded as "Centers of Excellence" by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in 2000 and have retained the status since then.

School of Agriculture

Established in 1973, the School of Agriculture has 101 faculty members and 1622 students. The college comprises the departments of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Machinery, Agronomy, Animal Sciences, Food Science Industry, Gardening, Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Soil Sciences, and Water Engineering. The College of Agriculture offers 10 programs: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Machinery, Agronomy, Animal Sciences, Food Industry Science, Gardening, Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Soil Sciences, and Water Engineering; these programs are offered at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. levels. The Dept. of Agronomy is considered as a Center of Excellence in Special Crops.

School of Education and Psychology

Established in 1973, the FUM School of Education and Psychology is home to 30 faculty members and about 1300 students. The school consists of 11 departments offering graduate and post-graduate programs in the fields of the educational management and planning, curriculum planning, education of disabled youth, pre-K education, the philosophy of education, clinical psychology, psychology of the disabled, general psychology, educational psychology, family counseling, and library and information sciences.

School of Veterinary Medicine

Founded in 1991, the School of Veterinary Medicine has 37 faculty members and consists of the departments of Basic Sciences, Patho-biology, Clinical Sciences, and Agri-food Hygiene. There are 400 enrollees majoring in the B.Sc., Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.), Doctor of Veterinary Science (D.V.Sc.), and Ph.D. levels. The programs and degrees offered are Large Animal Internal Medicine (D.V.Sc.), Veterinary Parasitology (Ph.D.), Veterinary Biotechnology (Ph.D.), Veterinary Pathobiology (D.V.Sc.), Comparative Histology (Ph.D.), Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.), and Veterinary Laboratory Sciences (B.Sc.). Academic members of the faculty are actively engaged in education and research in areas as diverse as clinical practice, domestic animal health and diseases, food safety, biology and public health. More importantly, the Research Center for Ruminant Abortion and Neonatal Mortality Studies is considered to be a Center of Excellence of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Faculty of Engineering

On February 25, 1975, Faculty of Engineering was established to serve as the leading engineering institution for the eastern part of Iran. In September 1975 (Mehr 1354), the Faculty of Engineering officially started its mission by admitting 30 students in the Electrical Engineering major and 30 students in Mechanical Engineering.

Courses are offered in B.Eng., M.Sc., Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Materials Engineering and B.Eng., M.Eng in Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering. Electrical Engineering group of Ferdowsi University has many prominent research labs such as integrated System Lab., corrosion and coating Lab. and etc. According to Iranwatch (Tracking Iran's Unconventional Weapon Capabilities) in 2011, research on solid propellant combustion (for rocket motor chamber), air-to-air missile fuse electronics, robust controller design for a missile's yaw-channel, coastal missile defense systems as well as remotely piloted vehicle's guidance, navigation, and control computer system is being done in the university.

Faculty of Architecture,Urbanism and Islamic Art

On July 2005, faculty of Architecture was founded in Ferdowsi university of Mashhad which consists of two distinct departments, Architecture Engineering and Urban planning. Each department offer Courses in B.Eng and M.Eng.

Research Institute of Biotechnology

Institute of Biotechnology was established on 2006 for the promotion of biotechnological research of the university. The following groups are active:

Sun & Air Research Institute (SARI)

SARI institute was founded on October 2010 (Mehr 1389), for research in the field of Renewable energy. This institute has achieved many goals such as design and manufacturing of 100 kW Wind turbine. At the present time, this institute focuses on the development of different types of wind turbine and assessment of Solar panels and solar machines as a future plan.

Admissions

The admission rate range is 40-50%, making this Iranian higher education organization an averagely selective institution. However, considering the strong efforts to improve the higher institutions in religious cities after the Islamic Revolution (27% of the resources allocated to the university are reported to be funded through proprietary revenues other than the governmental budget), undergraduate admission to Ferdowsi is limited to the top 10-20% of students who pass the national entrance examination administered yearly by the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education and could not be admitted in University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology and Shahid Beheshti University (mostly from the cities of Razavi Khorasan, and specially Mashhad). To attract top students, the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad has tried to use the scholarships so that after the increasing decline in admission rate in sciences (and especially physics), which was considered a serious threat to the university, additional scholarships are to be dedicated to all disciplines.

There are 12645 undergraduate students including 8398 females (66.4%) and 4247 males (33.6%) in the university.

Foreign Students

The Ferdowsi University of Mashhad is regarded as the first institution in attracting foreign students, mainly from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Central Asian republics, after the efforts made during the presidency of Ahmadinejad who declared Mashhad as "Iran's spiritual capital". Currently, more than 1,300 foreign students have enrolled in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which form one twentieth of the university students. According to the head of the University, more than half of the foreign students studying at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad are from Afghanistan and have were admitted at the university by using scholarships (106 students), through participating in the National entrance examination (199 students) and as independent students (204 people).

According to a deputy president of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, most of the foreign students studying in Iran are from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey. According to Iran's Minister of Science, Research, and Technology (in a speech at a graduation ceremony of a number of foreign students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad), many efforts were underway to attract as many as 25,000 by 2015 during the presidency of Ahmadinejad: "The improvement of the quality of universities has paved the way for the enrollment of foreign students. Fourteen thousand foreign students from 92 countries are currently studying at Iran's universities. And if we include the 12,000 foreign students studying at Al-Mustafa (International) University, a total of 26,000 foreign students are studying at higher education institutions in the country".

International Interactions

The university has been described with weak connection to other institutions. As the head of the University said, "less than 10% of our colleagues have international interactions in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, showing a bad situation on the connection between our academics and the universities abroad so that in order to improve the cooperation with Russian universities, the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad pays the entire cost of any joint project that each of university professors have with a Russian university or a professor."

Publications

FUM publishes 48 peer-reviewed scientific journals covering almost all fields of sciences and humanities. Some national notable journals are, Journal of Cell and Molecular Research (JCMR), Iranian Journal of Health and Physical Activity, Iranian Journal of Animal BioSystematics, Iranian Journal of Electrical Systems, Iranian Journal of Vaternary Science Technology, Iranian Journal of Numerical Analysis and Optimization etc.

Ranking History

The university has a world ranking of 10 announced in 2010 by Academic Performance (URAP).

Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) - National Ranking

The Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) published rankings for 2012 of Iranian universities and institutes of higher education appears as follows:

1. University of Tehran
2. Sharif University of Technology
3. Amirkabir University of Technology
4. Iran University of Science and Technology
5. K. N. Toosi University of Technology
6. Tarbiat Modarres University
7. Shiraz University
8. Isfahan University of Technology
9. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

The ranking analyzes research performance, international cooperation and scientific impact of a university or an institute.

Almost none of these universities however are mentioned (or perhaps not evaluated) in the 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities (link), nor in The Times Higher Education Supplement.[1]

Accordiing to Islamic World Science Citation Center, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad has the 11th rank in humanities in terms of the average number of citations per paper, after University of Shiraz, Tehran University, University of Ahvaz, Tarbiat Modarres University, Mazandaran University, Allameh Tabatabaei University, University of Al-Zahra University, University of Khwarizmi, Shahid Beheshti University and Isfahan University.

CWTS Leiden Ranking

Although located in the second city of Iran, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad has been ranked the fourth after Shiraz University among the universities and research centers of Iran (other than medicial and technical universities) in 2014-15, according to Islamic World Science Citation Database, which is a citation index established by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. It has been ranked 11 in CWTS Leiden Ranking (WR: 537):

Interestingly, having higher number of students (26,000), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad produces 639 papers compared to Shiraz University (20,000 students with 1099 papers) and Isfahan University of Technology (10000 students with 924 papers) out of Tehran, as well as Sharif University of Technology (10,502 students with 1816 papers), Shahid Beheshti University (17067 students with papers), Tarbiat Modares University (7,970 students with papers 1418), Amirkabir University of Technology (13593 students with 1347 papers), and Iran University of Science and Technology (11957 students with 1107 papers). University of Tehran (50448 students with 2570 papers) possesses twice number of student and four times number of publications as compared as Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Graduate Students and Faculty Members

It should be noted that currently, more than 20 thousand students are studying at the university, of which about 2,500 and 6,000 people have enrolled at doctoral degree and master's degree, respectively; that is, graduate students constitute more than 35% of students (8500 people) of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad where 639 papers are produced per year (compare the articles with those published by Isfahan University of Technology (2,500 postgraduates), Shiraz University (8,700 postgraduates), Sharif University of Technology (4,726 postgraduates), University of Tehran (18,360 postgraduates), Shahid Beheshti University (9,560 postgraduates), Tarbiat Modares University (7,970 postgraduates), Iran University of Science and Technology (5445 postgraduates) and Amirkabir University of Technology (8079 postgraduates). In addition, more than 800 people are working at the University as faculty members who nearly all (780 people) hold a PhD (190 faculty members have been rated as professors).

Research Centers

There are also many research centers including, but not limited to, the Research Institute of Biotechnology, Sun & Air Research Institute, the Research Center for Ruminant Abortion and Neonatal Mortality Studies, Institute of Plantation Science, the Center for Research in Seismology, Center for Research in Rodentology, Center for Research in Nanotechnology, Center for Research in Biotechnology (Stem Cell & Molecular Research) and Center for Research in Environmental Chemistry, and the Research Center for the Economy of Eastern Iran and Neighboring Countries, as well as many centers of excellence (including the Department of Persian Language and Literature, the Department of Geology and the Department of Agronomy) in the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad where 639 papers are produced per year (FUM publishes wide-ranging 48 peer-reviewed scientific journals covering a variety of fields within sciences and humanities).

Essential Science Indicators (ISI-ESI)

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad has been listed at the 31st rank among Iranian universities in terms of top scientists, according to Essential Science Indicators (ISI-ESI).

Web Of Science (WOS)

A study which was performed Web Of Science (WOS) on the scientific production of the academic members of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad at national and international level induring a 11-year period (1999-2010) showed that the scientific production, in total, was not acceptable figure relative to the magnitude and extent of the university and the number of academic staff in the university. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, according to WOS, is at the 10th rank (with 901 documents) among the universities in Iran.

Academic Ranking of World Universities

2011-2015: Not mentioned

Academic Ranking of World Universities does not rank it as the first seven Iranian universities.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

According to Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the university has achieved the 9th rank after Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz (WR: 801+).

1. Iran University of Science and Technology
2. Sharif University of Technology
3. Amirkabir University of Technology
4. Isfahan University of Technology
5. K.N. Toosi University of Technology
6. Shiraz University
7. University of Tehran
8. Tehran University of Medical Sciences
9. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

The same rank has been registered in University Ranking by Academic Performance (WR: 715).

Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) - Islamic Countries

The university is the 35th ranked university among the universities of Islamic countries in Islamic World Science Citation Database, after 9 universities in Iran, 15 universities in Turkey, 3 universities in Saudi Arabia, 2 universities in Egypt, 4 universities in Malaysia and 1 university in Pakistan.

Ranking by number of publications (ISI)

In terms of the number of papers published via Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), the 2007 ranking of medical and non-medical universities of Iran is as follows:

Current World rankings

Times Higher Education World University Rankings :
2016/2017: 801+

U.S. News:
2016/2017: 820

CWTS Leiden Ranking:
2016: (P indicator): 537
2015: (P indicator): 581/606

SCImago Institutions Rankings:
2016:572
2015:558

ISC National rank:
2013/2014: 4th
2014/2015: 4th

Famous Events

After the controversial appearance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University on 25 September 2007, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad invited President Bush to travel to Iran and speak on campus about a range of issues, including the Holocaust, terrorism, human rights and U.S. foreign policy. The invitation asked Bush to answer questions from students and professors "just the same way" that Ahmadinejad took questions "despite all the insults directed at him." The White House said that Bush would be willing to travel to Iran, but under different circumstances. "President Bush looks forward to traveling to a democratic Iran, an Iran where its leaders allow freedom of speech and assembly for all of its people and an Iran where the leaders mourn the victims of the Holocaust, not call for the destruction of Israel," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Some Iranian educational institutions such as Ferdowsi University of Mashhad have also been building their presence in Afghanistan. As Iranian officials announced in February 2009, the university opened a campus in Herat (named after a Persian poet who resided in Herat during the eleventh century) - the efforts that allow Iran to engage directly with Afghanistan's population and develop close ties with religious and ethnic minorities.

In 2011, Ferdowsi University's Department of Engineering in Mashhad said it would segregate students by gender in nearly 50 courses. One year before, a few general courses at Ferdowsi, such as general mathematics and physics, imposed separate classes for men and women. The disciplinary restrictions imposed on students, particularly female students, had been on the rise since June 2009, in many cases accompanied with insults and degradation of students.

Professor's Basij Organization (PBO)

The emergence of Mahmud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election brought a new force to Iran's political power, namely, the Professor's Basij Organization (PBO). PBO offices were established at a few large universities, including Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The military, Basij, and IRGC veterans teaching at these universities welcomed the establishment and inauguration of the Basij bureaus at universities, as most of them were already enrolled in such bureaus in other settings. The number of the registered members of the Professor's Basij Organization in Razavi Khorasan is 2 thousand and 500, most of whom belong to the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (it has 900 faculty members). According to the head of Razavi Khorasan's PBO, the number of Basiji professors is much greater than the number of the registered PBO members. 4,000 students of Mashhad's universities (mostly the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad) have registered in the Basij Organization.

Famous alumni