The Remote Higher Education in Iran over the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Thematic Analysis on Provisions and Priorities of the University of Tehran’s Official Website

The COVID-19 pandemic brought instructional and administrative possibilities and problematics in higher education internationally. In such conditions, the developing countries suffered challenging times for less personnel preparedness, deficiencies in technological infrastructure, and restricted sources of finance for investing. This study argues that Iran's higher education was already pressured under the UCMs before the emergency transition to online education. It therefore focuses on the University of Tehran (UT), one of the most affluent Iranian universities, which stands as a role model in quality and excellence at the national and regional scales. It employs the reflexive thematic analysis method to cover a comprehensive body of COVID-driven content at UT’s website, including news, administrative notes, and announcements on new official regulations, teaching guidelines, and consultative commentaries for mental wellbeing. It provides an analytical model based on three major themes, A) students: technical and emotional support vs. onerous regulations, B) prosociality and social responsibility, C) instructors at University of Tehran: highly expected simultaneously ignored. These major themes entail different subthemes and motifs that unveil UT’s developing solutions and obstacles to foster fruitful exchange within the UT community.