IFP Exclusive

Many Iranian Students Studying Abroad Back Home: VP

A senior Iranian official says over a hundred Iranian students studying at universities abroad have returned home.

Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari made the comment while criticizing some figures about the brain drain in Iran and the migration of the elite from the country.

“We are trying to base the country’s economy on manpower. Accordingly, [it is noteworthy that] more than 130 Iranian students studying at 100 top universities around the world returned home in the four months to August, 2019, and it is estimated that more than a thousand such individuals will return home by late March, 2020,” the vice president told ISNA.

He said the fact that some elite Iranian students are studying abroad should be regarded as “brain circulation,” not brain drain.

“Only 50,000 out of 4 million Iranian students are studying abroad,” he said, adding the figure amounts to 1.1 percent of the whole Iranian students while the global average for the percentage of students in other countries studying overseas is 3 percent.

“More than 30 percent of students of Arab countries in the region are studying abroad,” he added.

He further denied statistics allegedly published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which put Iran in the first rank in 2009 as far as brain drain is concerned.

“These statistics have been published while there is no such report at all,” he said.

Sattari then said around 12,000 Iranian students are currently studying in the United States.

“On websites, there are some statistics about the migration of elite individuals. I’m not a pessimistic person, but wrong figures are published in this regard with certain intentions,” he added.

The official also said 25 percent of the Iranian students who have returned from abroad have been employed at universities as faculty members or at other scientific circles.

“The remaining 75 percent either began to work at companies or started their own business by establishing start-ups or knowledge-based companies,” he said.

IFP Editorial Staff

The IFP Editorial Staff is composed of dozens of skilled journalists, news-writers, and analysts whose works are edited and published by experienced editors specialized in Iran News. The editor of each IFP Service is responsible for the report published by the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website, and can be contacted through the ways mentioned in the "IFP Editorial Staff" section.

Recent Posts

Iranian shepherd soothes attacking bear

A video has gone viral in Iran showing a shepherd trying to calm down a…

8 hours ago

Iran’s Lake Urmia sees significant improvement amidst restoration efforts

An Iranian official reports that the shrinking Lake Urmia is in better condition than last…

11 hours ago

Four terrorists killed during clash with IRGC forces in Iran’s southeast

Iranian security forces have killed another four terrorists in the southeastern city of Rask in…

13 hours ago

Former Parliament chief: Iran should not tie affairs to Trump

The former speaker of the Iranian Parliament and a current member of the country's Expediency…

13 hours ago

IRGC chief commander: Resistance grandeur led to changes in US leadership

The commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) says that the power of Palestinian…

14 hours ago

Iran signs key agreements during communications minister’s visit to Cuba, Venezuela

Iran’s Minister of Communications Sattar Hashemi has recently concluded a "productive" six-day trip to Cuba…

16 hours ago