Abdolhadi Haghjou
Director of Economic Development and Investment
Description of the duties of the Economic Development and Investment Directorate
The Economic Development and Investment Directorate of Allameh Askari International University (may God’s pleasure be upon him) was formed with the aim of realising a financially self-governing and sustainable university, in line with the strategic vision document for the 1410 horizon. The mission of this directorate is to design, direct and support income-generating, entrepreneurial and investment activities based on the University’s academic, human and infrastructural capacities.
Relying on its exclusive legal authorisation to establish branches throughout the country and to found affiliated non-profit schools, this directorate has placed the model of a “networked university economy” at the core of its strategies. The aim is to move away from a dependence of more than 70 per cent on tuition fees towards a diversified income model (65 per cent non-tuition income by 1410) by drawing on commercial, service, research and technological capacities.
The activities of this directorate are defined in five main domains:
- Steering investment and public-private partnership (PPP)
- Designing and concluding investment contracts for building and running the University’s branches (a university franchise model)
- Attracting investors to found affiliated non-profit schools
- Partnering with the private sector in building a clinic, a pharmacy, tourism facilities and other projects (a BOT model or profit-sharing)
- Establishing an endowment fund and a venture capital (VC) fund focused on humanities and cultural start-ups
- Developing commercial and service businesses
- Launching and developing income-generating brands that can be franchised at the branches
- Building and operating a specialist clinic (general medicine, psychiatry, nutrition) and a university pharmacy
- Creating a commercial university press (digital printing and publishing) and a specialist bookshop
- Renting out the University’s commercial and teaching spaces (conference halls, classrooms and scientific equipment) to outside bodies
- Commercialising research and soft technology
- Supporting the Islamic humanities science and technology park and the incubator for technology units
- Registering, protecting and selling intellectual property (licensing of inventions, software and teaching methodologies)
- Concluding commissioned research contracts with government organisations, cultural industries and public bodies
- Setting up a specialist advisory centre (legal, managerial, psychological and career) for society and industry
- Attracting new and international financial resources
- Designing and implementing university endowment schemes (endowment of learning, of medical services and of research)
- Attracting donations from benefactors, financial sponsors and international investors, particularly from neighbouring Islamic countries
- Drawing up and offering investment packages for each branch, school and service centre
- Following up loans and bank facilities backed by income-generating projects
- Economic development and monitoring of the University network
- Economic and financial analysis of all affiliated branches, schools and service centres
- Establishing a system of operational budgeting and cost control across the network
- Designing a dashboard for monitoring non-tuition income broken down by unit
- Cooperating with the Vice-Presidency for Development and Planning in establishing a system of economic performance management and productive planning