Professor Jane Knight Visits TUMS

Following the First International IHES (International Higher Education Seminar), held on April 29-30, 2017, at TUMS Headquarters, the most distinguished guest and a keynote speaker of the event, Professor Jane Knight, had a meeting with the TUMS officials at the Office of Vice-Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs on May 3, 2017.

Dr. Arabkheradmand, TUMS Vice-Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs, explained about how the office attempts to bring students together from different countries to create a background for international cultural exchange at the university campus and TUMS schools. He also talked about the language learning system which TUMS has developed for international students. He stated that students of clinical programs need to learn Farsi due to their needs of communication with local patients and colleagues while working at hospitals and clinics here. Moreover, in Dr. Arabkheradmand's words, learning Farsi helps all international students to have a better experience in Iran as they can communicate with locals independently. To this end, he mentioned, TUMS has established TUMS Language College.

In the following, Professor Jane Knight led a discussion about an internationalized university and international campus, and she talked about opportunities that a university should provide for students, regardless of their nationality, in terms of having a chance to choose the language of instruction of their intended programs. Also, she explained that, so far, what has been called ‘international campus’ of a university has been established at a place other than that university’s country of origin. The participants of the meeting then discussed several topics, centering on internationalization of TUMS, and exchanged ideas to have a wider view of different aspects of the issue.

At the end of this meeting, Professor Knight was awarded a certificate, introducing her as TUMS Distinguished Visiting Professor to maintain future collaboration with TUMS in the field of internationalization of higher education.