Mousavi removed from Iran's Open University board

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has removed MirHosein Mousavi from board of founders of the Open University and issued new statutes for the university.

In the new regulations for the Open University, the responsibilities of the board of founders, the board of trustees and the president of the University are limited.

The new statutes make the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the Ministry of Science and the office of the Supreme Leader the actual management body of the Open University.

The move shifts the reformist make up of the management in favour of more conservative leadership.

The statute limits the term for presidency of the university to four years which is a prologue to dismissal of the current president of the university, Abdollah Jasbi who has been the president of this organization since its establishment.

According to the new statutes, head of any departments that have more that five thousand students must be selected under the supervision of the government.

The Open University has 375 branches all across Iran and 400 thousand students are enrolled in its programs.

Changing the regulations of the Open University has been one of the priorities of the Ahmadinejad government.

The opposition leader, MirHosein Mousavi has been removed from board of founders of the open university which is comprised of prominent reformist figures like Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Seyed Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili, Abdollah Jasbi, and Hassan Khomeini. The new members are all representatives of the Supreme Leader or from the office of the president.

MirHosein Mousavi, the chief opponent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections, disputes the legitimacy of the current government. He was also dismissed from his post as the head of the Academy of Fine Arts in December by the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution which is headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.