Higher education in Iran
Iran has a network of private, public, and state-affiliated universities offering degrees in higher education.
IANI representatives say that academics in Iran are "ultimately directed by the regime and military when it comes to specific areas of research".
Rana Dadpour, who taught at an Iranian university, said that certain areas of research are directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and could be employed for "surveillance or military purposes".
[2] The existence of pre-Islamic era universities such as the School of Nisibis, Sarouyeh, Reishahr, and The Academy of Gundishapur provide examples of precedence of academic institutions of science that date back to ancient times.
The traditions and heritage of these centers of higher learning were later carried on to schools such as Iran's Nizamiyya, and Baghdad's House of Wisdom, during the Islamic era.
Some scholars have suggested that the establishment of the Nizamiyya madrasas was in fact an attempt to thwart the growing influence of another group of Muslims, the Ismailis, in the region.
Indeed, Nizam al-Mulk devoted a significant section in his famous Books of Politics (Siyāsatnāma) to refuting the Ismaili doctrines.
[4] The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (established 1065), where Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk appointed the distinguished philosopher and theologian, al-Ghazali, as a professor.
[5] The history of the establishment of western style academic universities in Iran (Persia) dates back to 1851 with the establishment of Darolfonoon – which was founded as a result of the efforts of the royal vizier Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, aimed at training and teaching Iranian experts in many fields of science and technology.
However, it was back in 1928 that Iran's first university, as we know it today, was proposed by an Iranian physicist, Mahmoud Hessaby.
The medical faculty Cochran established at Urmia University was joined by several other Americans, namely Drs.
The number of university students is now more than six times as many as in 1979 (when Shah was overthrown), so that critics debate whether the national entrance exam is useful anymore or not.
The Iranian government also in 2017 offered scholarships for successful applicants to pursue PhD-level studies in foreign countries, mostly Great Britain.
[19] By early 2000, Iran allocated around 0.4% of its GDP to R&D, which ranks it "far behind industrialized societies" and the world average of 1.4%.
[29] Students of unrecognized minority religions have been barred from entering tertiary education institutions in Iran, particularly those of the Baháʼí Faith.
Additionally, in August 2012, 36 universities declared that 77 BA and BSc courses in 2012–2012 academic year would be "single gender" and effectively exclusive to men, limiting the options of female undergraduate students.
[37] Out of this number, 8,883 students were studying in Malaysia, 7,341 in the United States, 5,638 in Canada, 3,504 in Germany, 3,364 in Turkey, 3,228 in Britain, and the rest in other countries.
