TEHRAN — Some 55,000 international students are studying in Iranian universities, Hassan Salar-Amoli, deputy science minister has said.

There are a total of 55,000 international students in Iran, 26,000 of them have enrolled in the universities affiliated to the Ministry of Science, 10,000 in the Islamic Azad University, 2,000 in the universities affiliated to the Ministry of Health and 17,000 in the Almustafa International University,” YJC quoted Salar-Amoli as saying Wednesday.

"One of the major policies in the Ministry of Science is to attract international students,” he said, adding, the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking has placed twenty three Iranian universities in the list of 1,000 major universities worldwide in 2018 which set the scene for enrolling more international students. 

Universities should also focus on attracting international students who are required to pay tuition fees, as a means of generating revenue for them, he stated.

To do so it is essential to ease the process for admitting international students, he added.

So far, international students studying at the Islamic Azad University and the universities affiliated to Ministry of Health are paying tuition fees, universities of Mashhad, Kashan and Kordestan have made progress in attracting such students, he highlighted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the deputy science minister said that Ministry of Science planned to provide scholarships to the most deprived Muslim people from African countries.

As per the latest rankings published by the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking twenty three Iranian universities are placed in the list of 1,000 major universities worldwide in 2018.

The rankings are compiled by the CWTS (Dutch: Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies, CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

University of Tehran, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, Shiraz University of Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, University of Tabriz, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Shahid Beheshti University, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, University of Gilan, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, University of Kashan, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University and Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman are ranked among world-class universities in 2018.

University of Tehran with 5,422 publications, Amirkabir University of Technology with 4,036 publications, Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 3,679 publications came in 179th, 272nd, and 313rd respectively which all show a rise compared to their 2017 ranking.

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