ASAIHL Board of Trustees in their 60th annual meeting in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur accepted the membership of eight Iranian universities including Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Amirkabir University of Technology, Sharif Uni. of Technology, Kharazmi Uni. Shiraz Uni. of Technology and The University of Science and Culture, in this regional union.
The Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) and Regional Information Center for Science and Technology both with HQs in the Iranian city of Shiraz also became a member of the ASAIHL.
Following the meeting of ASAIHL board of trustees, Abbas Ghanbari, Iran’s Scientific attaché in Southeast Asia, said “the presence of Iranian universities in international communities and the increase of their impact on global decision-makings and research and educational planning, is top priority of the country’s scientific diplomacy, and thus the membership of these universities in ASAIHL gains much significance.”
The Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL) was established in 1956 as a non-governmental organization at a meeting in Bangkok with the heads of eight state universities in Southeast Asia. Currently, 210 universities from Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, East Timor, Poland, Belgium, Canada, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden and United States are members of the association.
Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST) is an Iranian governmental organization established to promote the production and distribution of scientific information in Iran and Islamic countries, providing reference, study and bibliographical information and related services. The HQ is located in Shiraz and the organization has two branches overseas in Syria and Yemen.
Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC) is a citation index established by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology to index journals from the Islamic world. In 2009, ISC partnered with Scopus that allows ISC's publications to be indexed in Scopus.
The Iranian city of Isfahan hosted the previous meeting of ASAIHL in 2015.
MS/3845942