Unveiling ceremony of the multilingual website of the University of Tehran held

 The unveiling ceremony of the, Arabic, Russian and Chinese languages ​​of the official website of the University of Tehran, as well as the new version of the English website of the university was held  on Monday, March 13, 2023 in the presence of Dr. Seyed Mohammad Moghimi, President of the University of Tehran, a group of members of the University Board of Directors, Dr. Mehdi Yazdan Panah, Vice President of the Center for International Scientific Cooperation   of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and Dr. Mohammad Agassi, Director General of the Office of Media Studies and Planning of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

According to the Public Relations report of the University of Tehran, Dr. Seyed Mohammad Moghimi, President of the University of Tehran today, Monday, March 13 at the unveiling ceremony of the multilingual website of the University of Tehran, said about the importance and place of launching and developing websites in the development of businesses in the economic and social sectors:

“Today, designing and setting up a website has become a part of the organizational life of all organizations that want to be present in the international arena. Basically, without such a tool, one can never talk about competing in the international arena; However, if you don't have the tools, there is a doubt about having a successful perspective in the national and local arena”.

The President of University of Tehran added: “Therefore, what is being discussed today in the higher education system under the title of two-space governance of higher education indicates that if we want to double the brand of University of Tehran, we are forced to pay special attention to the discussion related to two-space governance in such a way that we have to make the university accessible. This availability ensures that the university's audience and stakeholders are sustainable and not just interacting with us on a temporary basis. The use of virtual space makes this interaction stable and the discussion of the website plays a role as the main tool”.

Professor of University of Tehran's Faculty of Management referring to the statement of the Supreme Leader that "scientific progress in the country should be used for the spread and influence of the Persian language" or that "it is not an honor for us to say that the scientific language of our country must be some foreign language added that the Persian language has so much capacity and capability that the most accurate and delicate sciences and knowledge can be expressed in this language. Perhaps the first steps to improve the position of the Persian language among the international scientific languages ​​are the design and launch of multilingual websites through which we can First of all, let's introduce ourselves and introduce our new capacities and achievements”.

The President of University of Tehran added: “By expanding the languages ​​of the University of Tehran website, we have added a wide range of potential beneficiaries from the people of China, Russia and Arab countries to the beneficiaries of University of Tehran. We believe that through scientific diplomacy we can organize our economic, cultural and social interactions in the world and create movement in all economic and social sectors of the country”.

Dr. Moghimi also stated that the launch of the multilingual website of the University of Tehran was made possible by teamwork and a limited part of the great capacities of the University of Tehran, and noted that only designing and launching the website is not enough, but updating and managing its news and non-news content can be much more important. It is from the initial design that I hope the necessary facilities to be provided to continue the work and teamwork to be developed to produce the content of the multilingual website of the University of Tehran.

According to the public relations report of University of Tehran, Dr. Mahdi Shahbazi, advisor to the University President and  Director  General  of Tehran University's Public Relations Office , in the unveiling ceremony of the multilingual website of University of Tehran, also said: “creating a platform for special information to introduce University of Tehran and its achievements, as well as a better explanation , various student scientific topics related to University of Tehran are among the goals of expanding the languages ​​of the University website”.

The Head of the President’s Office and Public Relations Office  of University of Tehran, referring to the passing of almost a year of the joint activity and cooperation of the Office of Vice President for International Affairs, the Office of Vice President of Digital Technologies and the Center of the University Presidency and Public Relations, as well as the cooperation of a group of faculty members, staff and students of University of Tehran in order to Increasing the number of languages ​​on the university's official website from Persian and English to five languages: Farsi, English, Arabic, Russian and Chinese, he said: “The format of the university's Persian website has also been changed according to the new goals that have taken place, and the appearance of all foreign languages ​​of the website has also been changed  and  follows a special format”.

Dr. Shahbazi mentioned user-friendliness and increased visibility as some of the features of the selected format for the university's multilingual website and said: "With the efforts of the colleagues of the digital technology department, the basic format was designed and the English and Arabic site started working long ago." In addition to the common English and Arabic sites, in order to move between other communities, several meetings were held to choose the language among Chinese, Russian, French, and German languages, and the launch of the website in Chinese and Russian languages ​​was targeted.

Appreciating the cooperation of Dr. Elaha Karimi Riabi and Dr. Hamed Vafaei, faculty members of the University of Tehran and international students from Russia and China who worked hard to launch the multilingual website, he reminded: The Office of Vice President for International and Office of the Advisor to the President and Public Relations are in charge of updating the website materials from now on.

The Head of University of Tehran's Presidency and Public Relations Center, Zohre Ramezani Dostkohi, in charge of the information systems of the Presidency and Public Relations Center, and Dr. Lamia Farsi, in charge of launching the Arabic website of the University of Tehran, as well as Dr. Babak Sohrabi, the head of the Digital Technologies Center, and Dr. Saeed Rouhani, the head of the University's Information Technology Center  and other colleagues  supported the multilingual website.This platform will be properly used to introduce the special achievements of the University of Tehran.

According to University of Tehran Public Relations, Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Vice President for International Affairs, in a short speech, thanked those involved in launching the new languages ​​of the University of Tehran website, and considered this action to be of high value for the dignity and reputation of  University of Tehran.

Dr. Mohammad Aghasi, Director General of the Office of Media Studies and Planning of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the former Secretary of the Culture Staff of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution also said: When Dr. Moghimi was elected as the President of University of Tehran, we considered his management to be the cause of great changes in the university. I hope that with Dr. Moghimi's managment, we will see and hear more news about the success of University of Tehran, which is the result of wisdom and knowledge of the country.

He considered the development of the languages ​​of UT's website to be of particular importance from the point of view that today we are facing the regional and global public arena, and he emphasized: "Today's situation is not for us as Iranians and revolutionaries, nor as those who are in the field of resistance. Rather, the Westerners themselves interpret it as post-truth, and since 2016 they say that we are in the post-truth period. Post does not mean after time, but it means that the truth has been lost and the spread of fake news is happening many times in the world. We are facing an environment where we constantly hear or see messages that are devoid of truth.

The Director General of the Media Studies and Planning Office of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance added: Some messages and information produced in the new world are lies, and some contain information that has been manipulated, meaning that some of them are true and some are false. In the third part, although the messages and information produced in the world are true text and news, they change some parts. Sometimes selective and misleading uses of correct information happen, and sometimes wrong perceptions of correct information are made. A type of content that is less addressed or not addressed is fake news that we are facing in Iran or resistance countries.

Dr. Agassi pointed out: There are hostile governments that officially have funds to create fake news against us. The Qur'an shows us the way to deal with them .The Qur'an instructs us in this way that as the good deeds increase, the bad deeds disappear and vice versa. Therefore, the way to enter the space of the post-truth era is to produce and spread the truth, and from any angle and area where we can have the spread of the truth, we can make serious changes in this field.

The former secretary of the culture staff of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution concluded at the end: We need to form as many resistance networks as possible, both in person and virtually. I hope that the expansion of the languages ​​of the University of Tehran website will help to form networks of resistance nuclei in the world so that we can witness the day when we say no to the post-truth era and see the truth in the world.

Dr. Mehdi Yazdan Panah, the Deputy of the International Scientific Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, also said in this ceremony: University of Tehran has always been a model for higher education in the country, and by launching the Chinese and Russian languages, the university's website has shown that it is and will continue to be a model.

The Deputy of the Center for International Scientific Cooperation of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology added: About 72% of people, even if they are fluent in another language, tend to spend their time on websites that are in their own language. Therefore, the launch of new languages ​​on the University of Tehran website is a very big move because it expands the audience of the University of Tehran website.

Referring to the achievement of the top national rank by the Office of Vice President   for International Affairs at  University of Tehran, the preservation and promotion of the proud status of the country's symbol of higher education is due to the efforts of Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Vice  President  for International Affairs, Abdul Majid Eskandari, the Director  General of the  Office of International Relations, and Dr. Masoume Malek, the Director-General for Faculty and Student Affairs  and other colleagues of the international field of University of Tehran , he said: The active professors and staff in the Office of Vice-President  for International Affairs,  University of  Tehran keep the light of science and technology diplomacy on despite all the difficulties it has.

The Deputy of the Center for International Scientific Cooperation of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, recalling the emphasis of the Minister of Science on scientific diplomacy and scientific reference, said: Considering the meeting of the presidents of the top universities of Iran and Russia, the need was felt to add the Russian language to the website of the University of Tehran. This has now been realized after several sessions of conferences of the top universities of Iran and Russia.

Dr. Yazdan Panah expressed his hope for holding the first joint meeting of the presidents of the top universities of Iran and China in the near future, and said: Considering that the University of Tehran has started a very good movement, the Ministry of Science will also help so that this movement can be a model for The entire higher education of the country, and more than that, let us witness the brilliance status  of University of Tehran.

According to the Office  of  Public Relations, in part of this ritual, the message of Dr. Younes Shekarkhah, a member of the academic staff of University of Tehran 's Faculty of World Studies and an outstanding professor of journalism, was read. Dr. Shekarkhah's message reads as follows:

In the name of Allah

The unveiling ceremony of the multilingual website of the University of Tehran is a situation arising from the efforts of all the stakeholders of the university; The efforts of faculty members, students, employees and technical infrastructure developers.

This ritual is also a sign: a sign of taking higher steps in the internationalization of the university, through the display of content and cultural richness of this country, through promotion in global rankings and a beginning for effective education for those interested in studying in Iran.

Although this ritual has been associated with the birth of Arabic, Chinese and Russian languages ​​on the websites of the University of Tehran, it has opened only one way and it has on the agenda for the use of other languages.

Today, those involved in this incident;  look forward to the cooperation of the members of the inclusive family of University of   Tehran, and in the meantime, the actualization of the faculty of foreign languages ​​and literature, and the capacity of my colleagues in the Faculty of World Studies, as well as the efforts of the Arab Language and Literature Department of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities and the ability of many Linguists active in higher education will play a vital role in accelerating this process.

This process, with the support of the Office of Vice  President  for   International  Affairs of the University and the Center of the Presidency and Public Relations, will not only improve the image of the mother university in the international arena, but also in the national arena, it will depict the authority of knowledge in the territory of University of Tehran.

Today's unveiling ceremony is a greeting to the world.

Yunus Shokarkhah"