Leaders of top Iranian universities to be fired

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has instructed his minister of science and technology to dismiss the heads of the universities of Tehran and Tarbiat Modarres, referring to them as "possible security" concerns.

Iranian media reported that the president sent a to Kamran Daneshjoo, saying:
"Unfortunately I have been given accurate intelligence that at the country's two most important universities, Tehran University, our top university, and Tarbiat Modarres University, the official institution for training educators, the general management is such that the atmosphere, far from being constructive, is in effect opposed to the general direction of our people and the requirements of academia."

Farhad Rahbar has been the head of Tehran University since 2007 and Bijan Ranjbar has headed Tarbiat Modarres University since 2010.

Some analysts have interpreted the shuffling of administrators in the Ahmadinejad government as part of the president's disputes with branches of government as well as his strategy to retain some power and engage his allies in the coming presidential election, in which he cannot run as a candidate