Iran's University of Science and Culture has engaged in cooperation with Austria's IMC University of Applied Sciences to hold specialized courses on tourism and hotel management.
"We signed a memorandum of understanding with the IMC three months ago and we are now trying to reach a contract," president of the Iranian university, Saeed Hashemi, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Speaking after a meeting with the IMC delegation in Tehran on Monday, Hashemi said the cooperation would involve short-term specialized courses on tourism and hotel management to be offered by the Austrian university. The intensive courses would last for up to two months, he said.
"IMC is among the top Austrian universities that has developed a considerable reputation across Europe in providing education on tourism and hotel management," Hashemi said.
Training Gap
"We suffer from serious weaknesses in the field of hotelier training. They offer modern education. We hope that the agreement on the short-term courses will be finalized in a couple of days."
Hashemi said negotiations with the Austrian side to set up a hotel management college have been complicated by the recent fall of the national currency.
"We did not expect the currency-related challenges, but we hope to be able to use the opportunity emerged for cooperation with the IMC to secure good discounts on the project."
The rial has lost more than half of its value against the dollar since April.
"Our discussions mostly focus on the contract rates and we hope the two sides can come to an understanding because we have come under severe strain as the foreign currency rates have tripled recently."
Hashemi said his university plans to train local teachers to cut down on the costs.
"The best way to save on costs is to train Iranian educators and we hope we can do that in the shortest period of time."
