Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), founded in 1934, is the oldest and the most well-known medical university in Iran. TUMS, with more than 1,500 academic staff, admits students in over 350 graduate and undergraduate programs in 11 schools and over 100 specialized research centers. At the moment, over 17,000 students are studying at TUMS, and it is receiving applications from about 90 countries in the world and has students from 29 countries. TUMS publishes 52 academic journals, and according to the Index Copernicus, TUMS Press is the 20th biggest academic publisher in the world. Moreover, it is now among the world’s 1% best centers in the fields of Clinical Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Social Sciences, with 17 TUMS academic staff being among the world’s greatest scientists.
The language of instruction at TUMS for international students is English both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. However, since some of the majors and programs at the undergraduate level require students to have interaction with patients who speak Persian, learning Persian could be obligatory for the students of those majors. These students are often M.D. and D.D.S. students but it is the Office of Admissions which specifies for which programs Persian or remedial English courses are obligatory or optional.
TUMS used to do outsourcing for teaching Persian to its international students and teaching English to TUMS students, staff, and faculty members. TUMS preferred to have more of a supervisory role, monitoring the quality of such an instruction offered by third party institutions. However, since quality is of utmost importance at TUMS, the leading university in medical sciences in Iran and the region, in the early 2015, decided to gradually take charge of the language instruction itself. This task was assigned to TUMS International College, which had been established earlier for two main purposes: teaching common modules courses to international students and offering language programs to them.
The Language Academy at TUMS International College immediately took charge of teaching Persian to TUMS international students in the first step and stopped outsourcing for this service. Regarding teaching English to TUMS students, staff and faculty members, the Academy undertook the instruction for some groups but still outsourced it for others, with a more thorough supervision on them. It is, however, going to take charge of the whole instruction by mid-2016 in a number of phases.
The TUMS International College, housing the Language Academy, is located at No. 3, Corner of First St., Hijab St., Keshavarz Blvd., Tehran, Iran.
The Language Academy intends to satisfy the need for teaching Persian to TUMS international students. It is intended to be an independent authority which takes charge of and/or supervises any language-related instruction at TUMS in line with the process of the internationalization of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
It is to ensure the quality of instruction in teaching Persian, English or any other language as a second or foreign language at TUMS. It is also meant to develop and supply the needed materials in the field of teaching Persian as a second language to be used in the field all over the world. The Language Academy is to ascertain that an international student is proficient enough in English and/or Persian to start or continue their education at TUMS.
Be the most reliable and recognized institution in testing proficiency in Persian as a foreign or second language.