Iran’s universities closer to being directly run by the Guards and other regime allies ‎under “privatization” plans

NCRI, 10 October 2010  – The Iranian regime has put more pressures on the country’s higher education ‎system with the Majlis (Parliament) ratifying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plan to privatize ‎universities and hand them over to those closely tied to the regime.‎

According to state-run news agencies on Friday, the mullahs’ parliament has agreed to ‎permit the transfer of higher education institutions to private hands, including the ‎Revolutionary Guards.‎
A proposed bill for the Fifth Development Plan of the government of Mahmoud ‎Ahmadinejad says, “In order to satisfactorily run the country’s higher education system, ‎the government is permitted to utilize a variety of options, including transferring the ‎ownership of higher education institutions to private parties, allow them to be self-‎sustaining, and to obtain all or parts of the students’ tuition in full or installments.”‎
Some observers see the move as a pretext for transferring the ownership of Iran’s ‎universities and other higher education institutions to the regime’s allies and armed forces ‎like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).‎
Among the outcomes of such measures are more obstacles against the entrance of low-‎income students and enabling these institutions to more easily issue fake degrees in ‎exchange for bribes.‎