TEHRAN - The Seventh National Development Plan (2023-2027) has obliged the Ministry of Science to increase the number of foreign nationals studying in the country.

The plan emphasizes the need to boost science diplomacy by increasing foreign students by up to 10 percent, IRNA reported.

It also highlights admitting non-Iranian scientists in research and technology education fields in universities and government institutes, as well as developing student exchange programs.

Currently, more than 94,000 foreign students are studying in Iran, of whom 24 percent (about 27,000 students), are studying in government universities.

Therefore, international students comprise about three percent of some 3.2 million university students studying in the country.

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 has 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.”

One of the policies of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology is to try to promote diversity in the admission of international students, ILNA quoted deputy science minister Hashem Dadashpour as saying.

In other words, "admitting from all countries and sending only to top universities," he added.

“We are determined and try to admit students from all nationalities, although, in line with the goals and strategic policies of higher education, we have priority over the countries of origin for admitting students.”

“Now we have students from 91 nationalities in the country's universities, some of them are from European and American countries,” Dadashpour said.

Naturally, a higher percentage of students is from neighboring countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, he noted.

“Our universities offer all the courses required in the doctoral, master's, and bachelor's degrees. Of course, fields such as law, computer, electronics engineering, medicine, accounting, Persian language and literature, civil engineering, business management, physical education, economics, Arabic language and literature, English language, psychology, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering are more popular than other fields.”

The Ministry of Science has facilitated residence for university students from Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria, Dadashpour said in March.

The possibility of staying during studies for students from these countries has been provided in some provinces and soon this issue will be extended to all parts of the country.

Students from these countries can enter and leave the country four times per year, he added.

Obtaining a residence permit every year and the requirement to do so is one of the problems of international students, he highlighted.

In this regard, through negotiations with several countries, including Syria and Lebanon, the problem of residence during the study has been solved.

For students of other countries, including Afghanistan, a three-year residence permit is issued from the second year of their studies, and students from this country can also enter and leave Iran without any problems, he explained.

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 Iranian universities in the next three years.

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.

MG