IRAN: Proposed education minister accused of making up his degrees

Did President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nominee as head of the nation's higher education system fake his university degrees?

According to an investigation by a reformist website, Mowjcamp.com, Kamran Daneshjoo, Ahmadinejad's proposed minister of higher education, has lied about his academic credentials by claiming that he obtained British university degrees.

Daneshjoo teaches at Tehran's Iran University of Science and Technology, the same institution from which Ahmadinejad emerged. 

But as parliament prepares to vote on Ahmadinejad's proposed Cabinet on Sunday, the report says the 52-year-old's credentials are riddled with question marks.

Ahmadinejad already faces a tough battle over his Cabinet. The influential conservative lawmaker Ahmad Tavakoli predicted that at least a third of the 21 nominees would get the thumbs down for lacking qualifications. 

Ten of the nominees, including Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki, were already in the Cabinet.

Among the 11 new faces is Daneshjoo, whose name means "college student."

According to his official biography, he holds a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering from a "College of London." 

The problem is, no such college exists. 

Perhaps, Mowjcamp speculates, he meant the Imperial College of London, which includes an aeronautics department.

But if you click on Daneshoo's resume on his website at the University of Science and Technology, there's a totally different set of credentials. 

Here (pictured above), it says that he obtained his master's and doctoral degrees from a place called the "Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology" in Britain, an institution that apparently does not exist. 

It also says that he obtained his bachelor's degree from "Queen Mary," which could refer to either Queen Mary, University of London, or Queen Mary's College, but that is very different from the College of London his boss cited.

The curriculum vitae on his website lists numerous articles in English and Farsi dated to 1999, but none of the articles could be found on the Internet, Mowjcamp reports.

Mowjcamp could also find no evidence of him having finished his degree in Iran.

All this could be the result of sloppy resume writing or bad translation. Daneshjoo served as the Ministry of Interior's public point man on the recent disputed presidential elections, and a lot of people are out to get him over his role in the vote count.

But after last year's Ali Kordan fiasco, in which Ahmadinejad's interior minister was ousted after he falsely claimed to have a degree from Oxford, Mowjcamp warns lawmakers to be vigilant. 

"Independent lawmakers should query him about his academic qualifications so that they will not have to impeach him later," the piece said.

-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: A screen shot from Kamran Daneshjoo's academic Web page.

Comments

[navid]

Dear all, check the following link :
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/09/exclusive_paper_authored_by_ir.html

[Dru]

What is amazing is that the information shown here in the pic of his web page is so different from what it says when you go to his web page (click on the link to his web page above). Once his degrees came into questions changes were clearly made.

Anyone should question his degrees, especially at this point.

[jayron]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/2009/09/02/players-or-pawns

[Nazanine]

Lol! its funny how for some Iranians when you disagree with them either you're a British spy or an IRI agent!

Raha : here I am not trying to judge him in anyway but try to read thru his story as he was a 'normal' person : Everyone's background should be checked, and I agree, publications do not mean that he did not fake his degree.. but the LA times and mowjcamp sites say there are NO publications and Google showed us that he has many..
AND he coauthored a book back in 1985 (see previous links).

So both these sites were wrong.

He has supposedly earned his PhD 20 yrs ago, after that (as per his resume, see Mowjcamps site, resume is in Farsi) after the PhD he held mostly administrative positions. That may excuse his absence from the research world.
- - -

Funny thing now is that I had been going to his website, both in Farsi and English, and I am 100% sure that in Farsi he said that he obtained his MS and PhD from Manchester U, and In English he said that he obtained the same degrees from UMIIST (the first 'I' stands for Imperial in this case, and it may have 'slipped' into the name).

Today when I checked back, it says something else : Imperial College of London.. he's not quite sure where he graduated from.

The sense of fraud as you say is felt really bad.

[Shayan]

danesh= knowledge; joo = seeking; ie. Seeker of knowledge. It is a term used to refer to college/university students but not its literal translation

daheshamooz = learner of knowledge ; refers to highschool students.

[AliReza - Baltimore]

Another Kordan ... Another Kordanization ! Run Kami , Run ...

[Raha]

That he has publications does not mean that did not fake his degrees. Yes, there are publications in his name as 1st co-author but it is curious why he does not have any papers with his supervisors in UK if he has graduated from there. Being a university professor myself in a similar area I feel a sense of fraud by this guy in his publication record.

[Pirouz]

Azandandish:
It appears his academic background should be verified, which is a relatively easy thing to do.

This kind of thing has been alleged upon several government authorities. Proving it should be a straightforward process.

In the recent past, it has been determined there has been such a fraud, and the government figure was forced out.

[Azadandish]

Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology??? No institution by this name has ever existed. Let's assume that Mr Danshjoo is just careless on his resume and he actually meant UMIST - I am sure he can show us his degrees. I am also sure that he can show us the Queen Mary Degree.
However, what happens if it emerges that Mr Daneshjoo actually holds no degreees from any UK institution? What would that tell us about Mr Ahmedinjad close circle? Mr. Kordan was perhaps an unfortunate event, but his chief of election staff turning out to be a fraud - that would be fitting.

[dmnari]

Nazadine,

This is what your wiki page says: "... and in 1966 the name finally changed to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology"

So when was it ever "Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology"

This university has never existed at any time in Manchester. Please read the wiki page carefully before yo attack people for not doing their due diligence.

[Nazanine E]

Dear Omid, if you go to my first link you will see that Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology = University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology= University of Manchester. The UMIST existed up until 2004 date at which it was merged with University of Manchester and became University of Manchester.

Check links in my first post, his papers are there.. do a Google search for yourself typing "DanshjOO" and "DaneshjOU" and you will see his publications. You can alternatively go to Science Direct or Elsevier sites and look for the articles on those sites, like I did, you will find them too.

Regards

[Omid]

Mark Pirouz, Ehasn and Nazanine,

What are you talking about? What the hell does the "Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology" have to do with the "University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology?" And as far his papers, Mowjcamp never claims that he never wrote any papers, just that the ones he lists aren't found anywhere. You people should stop defending Ahmadinejad, admit you are IRI trolls (probably bought and paid for by the Ministry of Intelligence) but more importantly, you should LEARN HOW TO READ.

Omid

[ehsan]

It's not good to lie or to distribute rumors when you can check their truth in a few minutes using the Internet. I am NOT a pro Ahmadineja, but please be honest.

[sailhardy]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be encouraged to pick people with fake credentials, and basing his picks on their "fundamentalism." This is how el Andalus, Islam's Golden Age was destroyed. That was a high point of human civilisation and produced great discoveries in science, medicine, optics, philosophy, astronomy, architecture and mathematics, all made possible by exchange of ideas among Muslims, Christians and Jews, mostly in Moorish Spain. Better the iranians should remain in the Dark Ages, which they can do under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ignoramus.

[FreeIran]

I did a search and it seems he does exist: http://ntlsearch.bts.gov/tris/record/tris/00416115.html

[Pirouz]

After reading (and checking) what Nazanine has written, I must say this makes three entities look bad:

Borzou Daragahi
The Los Angeles Times
Mowjcamp.com

This really questions the partiality of Borzou, someone who until now I was trusting for unbiased reporting on Iran. And it discredits Mowjcamp.com, and by extension the reform movement it represents.

[Lisal]

Frankly nothing should shock the us when it comes to the animals running the "Islamic" Republic of Iran. But what does blow my mind is how accomplished and hardworking most Iranians I've met are... yet this banana republic can't even fake voter fraud or creditials with the slightest believablity. Should this extreemly repressive gov ever be thrown into the sea by its very unhappy population... Iran should thrive. I've yet to find a single Iranian that did not take excessive pride in their education, or their children's educations. Shame on these freaks that make such a mockery of being from Iran, or Iranian - for they do not represent the masses they imprision.

[Nazanine E]

Not that I am affiliated in any kind with this person, but I would have probably been really mad at you at this point.

No such thing as Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology? Really? Try Google; you will find it helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Manchester_Institute_of_Science_and_Technology

Had you had the patience to go thru the list of publications, you too would have found what I found, you have the references, do a search on Elsevier or Science Direct, and you will find most publications too, one being in the Acta series (anyone being familiar would tell you that it is a prestigious journal).
Here’s some more :

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&hs=qgQ&q=kamran%20daneshjoo&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws

And had you had the intelligence to type in his last name as DaneshjoU (with a U), you would have even found more :

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=0&q=kamran+daneshjou&hl=en

As to his BSc obtained from College of London as claimed in your article, I must say that I do not find this information on Mr. Daneshjoo’s card. It says Queen Mary. Here’s an explanation with links that may serve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Mary,_University_of_London

Again I do not know this fellow and what I am writing here is not at all a reflection of my political views, but hey, get your facts straight, do your research and bite your fingers before you start typing non sense. There is plenty of misinformation out there, let’s not add to it.

Nazanine E.

[Rheo]

Faking elections, faking statistics, faking university degrees. What's next? Maybe a fake government?