Universities of the world: facilitate the admission process for Iranian students
The Issue
To the Board of Directors, Presidents, Deans, and Admission Offices of universities around the world,
In the past few months, Iranian universities have been a pillar of activism in the ongoing democratizing protests that have spread across the country. University students have been banned from entering their own universities, harassed by security guards, arrested, detained, tortured, and killed.
Corruption, nepotism, and censorship have ravished the Iranian academia in the past couple of decades, leading to a constant decline in the quality of higher education in the country; both students and knowledgeable professors are suffering. Due to an absence of academic freedom and an increasing knowledge and technological gap with the world, Iranian university students are more eager than ever to study abroad.
According to UNESCO Institute of Statistics, there were nearly 67,000 Iranian international students in the world in 2020, ranking Iran 17th on the list of main source countries for international students worldwide. If we only look at source countries for international students in OECD countries, Iran ranks 13th. Based on UNESCO data, the top 10 international destinations for Iranian students are the United States, Germany, Turkiye, Canada, Italy, Hungary, Australia, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., Iranians rank 4th in terms of number PhD students and 10th in terms of number of students in the top 10 American universities of the QS Ranking 2022 (Iran Migration Observatory, 2022). In all destinations, Iranians overwhelmingly study in STEM fields and at postgraduate levels, which is usually advantageous for host countries in terms of contribution to innovation and entrepreneurship (Iran Migration Observatory, 2022).
Although higher education in public universities is free in Iran, graduates must work for as many or twice as many years as they studied (depending on the regional quota they used for university entrance exams) in order to have their diplomas granted to them. Alternatively, graduates can pay to release their diplomas from governmental custody. For male graduates, there are additional obstacles related to fulfillment of the compulsory military service.
On 28th of November 2022, the Students Affairs Department of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (the ministry in charge of non-medical public universities in Iran) issued an order that increased the fees required for the release of diplomas by at least 500 percent! This puts pressure particularly on those who grow up in smaller towns and less privileged areas, as the quota system which they rely upon for their entrance exam requires them to work or pay twice as much for their degrees to be released. This is a clear violation of the right to fair and equal access to education.
Due to deteriorating economic conditions in Iran, the costs of studying abroad have been difficult to manage for most Iranian households in the past few years, but the new regulations practically make it impossible for many to seek education in other countries. Right now, an Iranian undergraduate in the field of engineering must pay somewhere between 560 and 1260 million Rials to release their diploma. This is in the context of about 40% of the unemployed in the country being university graduates. Assuming a recent graduate finds a job (which is very difficult) and makes about 60 million Rials per month, it would take between 9 and 21 months of spending every penny towards their diploma for them to release it. Given that the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare estimates that the poverty line for a 3-person household living in the country’s capital in 2022 is about 120 million Rials per month and barely any fresh graduates make it to the line, it is obviously impossible for them to save as much as needed for buying off their commitment to the state. Such measures deepen the gap between the rich and the poor, and limit the opportunities of Iranian youth who are seeking a better life.
While there are campaigns going on within Iran to overturn these additional fees, support from foreign universities is of utmost importance. Some universities, including the Viterbi School of Engineering at University of Southern California (USC) that has waived application fees for prospective Iranian graduate students and the chemistry department of McMaster University that is apparently accepting some Iranian students who cannot afford to buy off their commitment by relying on the approval of a faculty member from their Iranian university regarding completion of degree, have taken various initiatives to support us. We are asking all universities to consider taking all or some of the following steps to support Iranian youth in these difficult times:
- Waiving application fees
- Showing flexibility regarding application deadlines (given the problems with accessing internet in Iran)
- Offering flexible deadlines for tuition fee payments
- Extending the deadline for or waiving the requirement of presenting official diplomas to secure admission. The following options can be replaced:
- Instead of admission, students’ graduation from your university could be conditioned on presenting their official previous diploma. This gives them time to save up the money to release their diplomas.
- Instead of requiring official diplomas, admission can be granted based on unofficial diplomas and transcripts (temporary documents issued by universities in Iran that indicate completion of degree but cannot be officially translated and verified by the ministries). Ensuring authenticity can happen in two ways:
- A committee of Iranian professors at the destination university can authenticate that unofficial translations match the original documents provided in Farsi/Persian.
- Respected professors at Iranian universities can authenticate that a certain student has indeed completed their degree and verify the unofficial transcript in direct communication with the destination university.
In addition to other measures, we strongly encourage all universities to deliberate on the italicized option, which is the most advanced step towards supporting prospective Iranian students. Once this petition reaches 5000 signatures, we will start contacting universities directly with our requests. For each university, we will attempt to find a group of Iranian professors at their institution or city who are willing to cooperate in this scheme in order to facilitate the application process for prospective Iranian universities. If any Iranian professors want to volunteer for this project, please email us at mhasa011@uottawa.ca.
4,833
The Issue
To the Board of Directors, Presidents, Deans, and Admission Offices of universities around the world,
In the past few months, Iranian universities have been a pillar of activism in the ongoing democratizing protests that have spread across the country. University students have been banned from entering their own universities, harassed by security guards, arrested, detained, tortured, and killed.
Corruption, nepotism, and censorship have ravished the Iranian academia in the past couple of decades, leading to a constant decline in the quality of higher education in the country; both students and knowledgeable professors are suffering. Due to an absence of academic freedom and an increasing knowledge and technological gap with the world, Iranian university students are more eager than ever to study abroad.
According to UNESCO Institute of Statistics, there were nearly 67,000 Iranian international students in the world in 2020, ranking Iran 17th on the list of main source countries for international students worldwide. If we only look at source countries for international students in OECD countries, Iran ranks 13th. Based on UNESCO data, the top 10 international destinations for Iranian students are the United States, Germany, Turkiye, Canada, Italy, Hungary, Australia, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., Iranians rank 4th in terms of number PhD students and 10th in terms of number of students in the top 10 American universities of the QS Ranking 2022 (Iran Migration Observatory, 2022). In all destinations, Iranians overwhelmingly study in STEM fields and at postgraduate levels, which is usually advantageous for host countries in terms of contribution to innovation and entrepreneurship (Iran Migration Observatory, 2022).
Although higher education in public universities is free in Iran, graduates must work for as many or twice as many years as they studied (depending on the regional quota they used for university entrance exams) in order to have their diplomas granted to them. Alternatively, graduates can pay to release their diplomas from governmental custody. For male graduates, there are additional obstacles related to fulfillment of the compulsory military service.
On 28th of November 2022, the Students Affairs Department of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (the ministry in charge of non-medical public universities in Iran) issued an order that increased the fees required for the release of diplomas by at least 500 percent! This puts pressure particularly on those who grow up in smaller towns and less privileged areas, as the quota system which they rely upon for their entrance exam requires them to work or pay twice as much for their degrees to be released. This is a clear violation of the right to fair and equal access to education.
Due to deteriorating economic conditions in Iran, the costs of studying abroad have been difficult to manage for most Iranian households in the past few years, but the new regulations practically make it impossible for many to seek education in other countries. Right now, an Iranian undergraduate in the field of engineering must pay somewhere between 560 and 1260 million Rials to release their diploma. This is in the context of about 40% of the unemployed in the country being university graduates. Assuming a recent graduate finds a job (which is very difficult) and makes about 60 million Rials per month, it would take between 9 and 21 months of spending every penny towards their diploma for them to release it. Given that the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare estimates that the poverty line for a 3-person household living in the country’s capital in 2022 is about 120 million Rials per month and barely any fresh graduates make it to the line, it is obviously impossible for them to save as much as needed for buying off their commitment to the state. Such measures deepen the gap between the rich and the poor, and limit the opportunities of Iranian youth who are seeking a better life.
While there are campaigns going on within Iran to overturn these additional fees, support from foreign universities is of utmost importance. Some universities, including the Viterbi School of Engineering at University of Southern California (USC) that has waived application fees for prospective Iranian graduate students and the chemistry department of McMaster University that is apparently accepting some Iranian students who cannot afford to buy off their commitment by relying on the approval of a faculty member from their Iranian university regarding completion of degree, have taken various initiatives to support us. We are asking all universities to consider taking all or some of the following steps to support Iranian youth in these difficult times:
- Waiving application fees
- Showing flexibility regarding application deadlines (given the problems with accessing internet in Iran)
- Offering flexible deadlines for tuition fee payments
- Extending the deadline for or waiving the requirement of presenting official diplomas to secure admission. The following options can be replaced:
- Instead of admission, students’ graduation from your university could be conditioned on presenting their official previous diploma. This gives them time to save up the money to release their diplomas.
- Instead of requiring official diplomas, admission can be granted based on unofficial diplomas and transcripts (temporary documents issued by universities in Iran that indicate completion of degree but cannot be officially translated and verified by the ministries). Ensuring authenticity can happen in two ways:
- A committee of Iranian professors at the destination university can authenticate that unofficial translations match the original documents provided in Farsi/Persian.
- Respected professors at Iranian universities can authenticate that a certain student has indeed completed their degree and verify the unofficial transcript in direct communication with the destination university.
In addition to other measures, we strongly encourage all universities to deliberate on the italicized option, which is the most advanced step towards supporting prospective Iranian students. Once this petition reaches 5000 signatures, we will start contacting universities directly with our requests. For each university, we will attempt to find a group of Iranian professors at their institution or city who are willing to cooperate in this scheme in order to facilitate the application process for prospective Iranian universities. If any Iranian professors want to volunteer for this project, please email us at mhasa011@uottawa.ca.
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Petition created on December 24, 2022