Universities close for elections, examinations shifted

Iran’s universities will close and examination timetables have been rearranged to avoid clashing with presidential elections this month. There has been subdued criticism from students and universities, but they have been unable to openly oppose the Ministry of Higher Education’s directive due to harsh controls on campus protests.

In some universities examinations have been brought forward and in others they have been postponed to a later date, as universities will be shut from this week in advance of presidential elections on 14 June.

According to a directive issued in recent weeks by the Ministry of Higher Education , no exams should be held in the two-week period before and after the elections.

Some universities have already closed, although the semester would normally be ongoing at this time.

In the capital, Tehran University will begin the summer vacation almost a month early, from 7-28 June. Student hostels will be closed, forcing students to disperse to their hometowns, reducing opportunities to organise protests.

Normally hostels stay partly open even during vacations, but Tehran University authorities reportedly told students that the hostels could not be kept open because food subsidies had been removed for meals served in canteens, according to reports from students.

First time in decades

“This is the first time for 30 years that universities close their doors during elections,” said Saeed Paivandi, a professor of education at the University of Lorraine in France, and an expert on universities in Iran.

“Usually it is the contrary. During elections, the universities and the students [are] very active. Universities have been a place of debate and a place of change.”

Paivandi told University World News: “The dates of all the exams that normally take place at this time of the year have been changed. In fact, it is to close the universities so that there is no teaching during this period because the authorities do not want students to be gathered at universities for possible demonstrations or other unexpected actions.”

Universities had often been where many candidates emerged, Paivandi said. In 2009 reformist leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi used universities as centres for his election campaign.

Leaders of the ‘Green revolution’ that followed the 2009 elections, who had a huge support base on university campuses, are under house arrest after a crackdown that followed the election. They are banned from taking part in the upcoming election.

This year, a number of candidates kicked off their election campaigns with speeches – some of them televised – at university campuses, according to Iran’s official Press TV.

The aim was to garner the student vote in a controlled atmosphere, in advance of closing universities. According to political commentators, conservative candidates, who are less popular than more moderate politicians, need to gain the vote of students in order to prevail.

The authorities “are able to say the universities are still active. But in reality these [debates] are organised in a controlled manner by groups that are very close to the state, or organised by the more conservative organisations. There are very few independent student organisations involved,” Paivandi said.

“There’s no comparison with previous elections, where the universities and students were the centre of electoral activities.”

Few open protests

But in late May it emerged that students at Tabriz Azad University in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and at Urmia University in West Azerbeijan province had protested against the rescheduling of exams from July to June, according to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The students said they would not have enough to time to prepare for exams.

Open protests have not been widespread, despite monitoring of the situation by overseas Iranian dissident groups. But experts noted underlying disaffection with the directive at many universities, particularly in the capital.

The directive to close universities and change exam dates “is a political decision and students know that a political decision of this kind cannot really be contested, because if they do it becomes a political protest in the eyes of the authorities", Paivandi said.

“There is a general discontentment at universities. But there is no action at universities because students don’t have the means to protest. The only way they can protest is by not taking part in the activities put in place during the elections by the authorities.”

Discontent among university leaders over the changes was strong enough for Hojjat Al-Islam Mohammadian, the representative of Iran’s universities in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to criticise the directive when it was revealed to universities in April.

University heads said it amounted to interference in university teaching.

According to local reports, universities only began to change the teaching timetable after the ministry refused to back down.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hossein Naderi Manesh insisted in an interview with Iran Student News Agency: “The ministry does not interfere with the universities’ calendars and it is up to individual universities to decide what to do.”

Paivandi said universities had been allowed to host some meetings by presidential candidates. “Because opposition student groups have been banned and protests forbidden, effectively the activists cannot organise much. Controls are very, very severe.”