Yazd University (YU, Persian: دانشگاه یزد, Daneshgah-e Yazd) is a public research university in Yazd, Iran. It is a major state-funded research center in central Iran and the academic center of Yazd province and was the first comprehensive institute of higher education established after the 1979 Islamic revolution.[1] It is also the principal heir to the former University College Yazd (Persian: دانشسرای عالی یزد).[1]
Yazd University is considered to be among the top 10 comprehensive universities in Iran and it is among 200 best world's young universities.[2]
The university was founded in 1989 by a merger of several older institutions and grew rapidly over the years. Its main campus is located in Safaeeyeh. There are four other campuses and two autonomous schools, all located within or in the vicinity of the city of Yazd.[1]
Yazd University offers BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in more than 40 fields through its 29 departments and is home to more than 14,000 students.[3] Yazd University was one of the main centers of the nationwide uprising in universities that started in September 1401 and continued until the end of November, and the students showed their protest to the authorities and institutions of the country with various civil activities and demanded freedom[citation needed]. Students were imprisoned completely illegally. During this uprising, many university students constantly received threatening messages from the repression apparatus Also, these protests led to the attack of repressive institutions on student dormitories, the expulsion and suspension of more than 800 students of Yazd University in an illegal move.
Faculties/Schools
A courtyard on the campus
The university currently has three faculties and two schools as follows:
Faculty of Engineering: This faculty started its activities in 1988 and includes the following departments:
1. Department of Electrical Engineering: In the early 1990s, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering (ECE) was established within the Faculty of Engineering of YU. These two departments were then joined in 2008 into the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
2. Department of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering: The Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering was established in 1991. The most important research activities of this department have been holding five conferences, publishing a scientific and research journal, and running a mining engineering research center.
3. Department of Civil Engineering
4. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Fluid mechanics and Robotics are its best classifications)
5. Department of Computer Engineering
6. Department of Industrial Engineering
7. Department of Textile Engineering
8. Department of Chemical & Polymer Engineering
Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences: This faculty started its activities in 1977 and includes the following departments:
1. Department of Economics, Management & Accounting: The Department of Economy, Management and Accounting of Yazd University has begun its activities since 1990 initially with Industrial Management field.
2. Department of Social Sciences: The history of this department goes back to 1995 when the Department of Social Science was established. It became an independent department ten years later in 2005. This shift made it possible to employ new faculty members in different fields of social sciences. Consequently, the fields of study were expanded to make the department a place for different subjects of social studies. The inclusion of Information Science and Knowledge Studies to the department resulted in making the field of knowledge, science, and technology significant parts of the studies.
3. Department of Languages and Literature: The history of the Languages and Literature Department dates back to 1976 when the Persian Literature Department was founded in Teacher Training University. Later on, it was merged with Yazd University in 1992. The Programs of English Language and Literature and Arabic Language and Literature were later added to the department in 1994 and 1997 respectively.
4. Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences
5. Department of Theology
6. Department of Geography
7. Department of Law & Political Sciences
Faculty of Science: This faculty includes the following departments
1. Department of Physics: The Department of Physics was established in 1982. Recently there are 5 programs; Atomic and Molecular Physics, Solid State Physics, Nuclear Physics, Elementary Particle Physics, Meteorology Physics.
2. Department of Mathematical Sciences: The Department of Mathematical Sciences was founded in 1977 under the name of Mathematics and initially offered only B.Sc. in Mathematics, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Pure and Applied Mathematics were added in 1994 and 2004 respectively. Moreover, the M.Sc. in Financial Mathematics as a new interdisciplinary branch of Applied Mathematics began in 2011. Computer Science was founded in the Department of Mathematics of Yazd University in 2001, and since then has accepted students for the Bachelor of Science degree. From 2009, the master's degree and in 2012 the Ph.D. degree in computer science started.
3. Department of Chemistry
4. Department of Geology
5. Department of Biology
School of Natural Resources & Desert Studies: This school was established in 1992. The school includes the following departments:
1. Department of Environmental Sciences
2. Department of Arid Land and Desert Management
3. Department of Watershed & Rangeland Management
School of Art and Architecture: School of Art and Architecture is the fourth architecture school in the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and it was the first one not in the capital. The school includes the following departments:
