University of Hormozgan

The University of Hormozgan was founded in 1991 in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Iran’s southern coast, close to where the straits of Hormoz bring the Persian Gulf to its narrowest point.

UH serves Hormozgan province and its neighbours. In 2023, it enrolled around 6,300 students across faculties of agriculture and natural resources, chemical and petroleum engineering, humanities, engineering, management, economics and accounting, science and marine science, and technology.

Bandar Abbas’s role as Iran’s largest commercial port and busiest passenger port gives logic to its focus on sustainable activity derived from the sea.

Marine studies and biotechnology are significant specialisms. Research centres include the Makram Studies Research Institute, which studies the key strategic region at the junction of Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan provinces, with groups specialising in agricultural technology, the sea-oriented economy and coastal and marine development.

The Mangrove Research Institute, opened in 2013, focuses on two features of the region: Iran’s only mangrove forest and Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf and home to the nation’s only geo-park.

Earthquakes and tsunami are also a notable speciality, with international partners including Peking University, Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, China’s Institute of Earthquake Forecasting and the Indian state of Gujarat’s Institute of Seismology.

The Incubation Centre set up in 2008 claims to have launched 36 enterprises and to have another 28 on its books.