TEHRAN - The minister of science, research, and technology has said the situation will be facilitated for foreign nationals to study in the country’s universities.

The universities highly welcome foreign students and there is constructive competition between the universities in this field, Science Minister Mohammad-Ali Zolfigol said.

In fact, the ground is ready and the conditions should only be eased to increase the number of foreign students, he added.

“Plans are underway to facilitate the issuance of visas for non-Iranian students as much as possible.”

Scientific diplomacy is the priority of the ministry, he said, adding: “This issue requires a broad and cross-departmental determination.”

Referring to the program for teaching the English language to foreign students in Iran, Zolfigol said: “We have discussed the issue with a number of universities.

Currently, D-8 International University provides courses for foreign students in English.”

D-8 International University is an intergovernmental University affiliated with the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation consisting of Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Egypt.

More than 100,000 foreign students from 119 countries are studying in Iranian universities, and 94 universities in the country have permission to admit foreign students.

These students are studying in different fields of science, research and technology, health and medical education, and also in the fields of humanities, Islamic sciences, Persian language, and literature, law, fundamentals of Islamic law, management fields, economics, psychology, social sciences, as well as engineering, agricultural sciences, animal sciences, and basic sciences.

The number of foreign students will double in the Iranian universities in the next three years, Hashem Dadashpour, the Iranian deputy science minister has said.

Universities should increase their interactions and scientific exchanges in order to attract international students and accelerate internationalization in the region and the world, he highlighted.

Iranian universities achieved good ranks at the global level and based on the evaluations of the world’s most prestigious institutions so that there is the capacity to attract international students, he said.

Iran is among the 15 successful countries in attracting international students, according to Mohammad Javad Salmanpour, the deputy head of the Organization for Student Affairs.

The education of foreign students in Iran has grown significantly compared to previous years, even last year, it has doubled, he said.

Iran has the ability and capacity to have more than 250,000 foreign students by 2026, he stated.

Despite U.S. sanctions, the international activities of Iranian scientists have increased year by year, so that more than 35 percent of Iranian articles in Scopus have been multi-national projects, Peyman Salehi, the deputy science minister, has said.

He made the remarks at the COMSTECH (the Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) ceremony in July 2022.

Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and build constructive international partnerships.

MG