Higher education in Iran

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University of Tehran College of Humanities

Iran has a large network of private, public, and state affiliated universities offering degrees in higher education. State-run universities of Iran are under the direct supervision of Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (for non-medical universities) and Ministry of Health and Medical Education(for medical schools).

History

It was Abbas Mirza who first dispatched Iranian students to Europe for a western education.[1] The existence of universities such as the Nizamiyyah and The Academy of Gundishapur provide examples of academic institutions of science that date back to ancient times, however 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. It was in 1928 that Iran's first university, as we know it today, was proposed by an Iranian physicist, Mahmoud Hessaby. The University of Tehran (or Tehran University) was designed by French architect Andre Godard, and built in 1934. Today, Tehran University is Iran's largest university with over 32,000 students.

In the medical field, it was Joseph Cochran who first founded a professional school in Iran in 1878, and who is often credited for founding Iran’s "first contemporary medical college" [5], as well as founding one of Iran's first modern hospitals ("Westminister Hospital") in Urmia. The medical faculty Cochran established at Urmia University was joined by several other Americans, namely Drs. Wright, Homlz, van Nourdon, and Miller. They were all buried in Urmia. Samuel M. Jordan, whom "Jordan Ave." in Tehran is named after, also was directly responsible for the expansion of the American College in Tehran.

McCormick Hall, American College of Tehran, circa 1930. The school received a permanent charter from the Board of Regents of the State University of New York in 1932.[2]
Click HERE to view videoclip about Tehran University.

After Tehran University, the establishment of other universities in Iran soon followed, and The Shah initiated projects to build Iranian universities modeled after American schools. Thus Pahlavi University (Shiraz University today) was modeled after The University of Pennsylvania, while Sharif University was copied after MIT. Some universities such as Urmia University were even directly founded by Americans. The 1979 revolution put an end to the massive US-Iran academic relations.

The Ministry of Higher Education, which oversees the operation of all institutes of higher education in Iran, was established in 1967. In 1980, a major overhaul in the academia and higher education system of Iran initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini led to what is referred to in Iran as "Iran's Cultural Revolution".

In 1986, the Ministry of Higher Education handed over supervision and overseeing of education in the medical sciences in Iran to the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education. This was to optimize use of the medical resources in the country, and to promote health, treatment, teaching, and research more efficiently in the field.

After the Iran-Iraq War, some new universities were founded and doctoral programs were developed in the previous universities. 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.

Universities and rankings

File:SBU.jpg
Shahid Beheshti University

In 1994, Iran had over 2.2 million students enrolled in universities.[3] Iran currently has 54 state operated universities, and 42 state medical schools. These are primarily the top choice for students in national entrance exams, and have the largest and most prestigious programs. There are 289 major private universities operating as well.[4]

Strong competition exists between top ranking Iranian universities, however generally in Engineering and Physics it is generally thought that Sharif University of Technology tops all schools nationwide, while in the biological sciences, medicine, and humanities University of Tehran outperforms all other universities.[5]

In terms of the number of papers published, the 2005 ranking of non-medical universities of Iran is as follows[6]

  1. University of Tehran
  2. Sharif University of Technology (former Aryamehr University of Technology)
  3. Shiraz University (former Pahlavi University)
  4. Isfahan University of Technology
  5. Tehran Polytechnic

with the most number of papers published in the following fields by order[7]:

  1. Chemistry
  2. Medicine
  3. Engineering
  4. Physics

None of these universities however are mentioned (or maybe not evaluated) in the 2005 SJT Top500 Ranking of the world's best universities [6], nor in the Top 50 Rankings by the London Times.[7] Iranian authorities however ignore such rankings, and claim that, according to Chancellor of Tehran University, "Iran is third in Science and Technology in Asia after Japan and Turkey".[8] This overconfidence however may become true in near future, as Iran has had the highest growth of research publications among all countries of the world in 1995-2004 period, ranking 1st in the world just above China.

Critics claim that for the case of Iran, such rankings such as SJT and THES are questionable when assessing Iran's institutions of higher education, since graduates from these universities routinely are well prepared and hence end up matriculating into the competitive elite graduate schools of Europe and the United States in comparatively large numbers. Had the rankings over-weighted the merit of students (which would not be balanced of course), a university like Sharif would conveniently be expected to claim a rank in top 20 worldwide.

In the medical schools, the list of the most top ranked universities is:[9]

  1. Tehran University of Medical Sciences [8] (ranking news bulletin in Persian)
  2. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences [9] (ranking news bulletin in Persian)
  3. Iran University of Medical Sciences [10] (ranking news bulletin in Persian)
  4. Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

In all these schools, except for private universities such as the Islamic Azad University system, tuition and room and board, is mostly paid for by the government. The universities themselves largely operate on state budgets. There are also institutes like Payame Noor University that offer degrees remotely or online.

Some schools offer degrees in conjunction with European Universities. The Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan for example, sends students and faculty to The International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy for workshops, seminars, and summer schools. The Iranian government also offers intensely competitive but fully paid scholarships for successful applicants to pursue PhD level studies in Britain.

List of Iranian universities

See main article: List of universities in Iran

Iran's Brain Drain problem

File:Science Iran.jpg
Despite the brain drain problem, Iran's scientific community continues to produce and remain productive.

Iran tops the world countries in the Brain Drain phenomenon.[10] The CIA estimates that 79.4% of Iran's population aged 15 and over can read and write. A significant majority of this population is at or approaching collegiate levels. Of this population, nearly 150,000 are estimated to exit Iran every year.[10]

Brain Drain in Iran however is nothing new. Soon after the Islamic revolution of Iran, Iran's Higher Education system was shut down for over a year, and was completely overhauled. On Oct 31 of 1979, such responded Ayatollah Khomeini to a reported trend of Brain drain in Iran:

"They say there is a brain drain. Let these decayed brains flee. Do not mourn them, let them puruse their own definition of being. Is every brain with, what you call, science in it honorable? Shall we sit and mourn the brain that escaped? Shall we worry about these brains fleeing to the US and the UK? Let these brains go and appropriate brains take charge. Now that they are filtering, you are sitting worried why they are executing [people]? Why are you discussing these rotten brains of [these] lost people? Why are you questioning Islam? Are they fleeing? To hell with them. Let them flee. They were not scientific brains. All the better. Don't be concerned. They should escape. [Iran] is not a place for them to live any more. These fleeing brains are of no use to us. Let them flee. If you know that this is no place for you, you should flee too."(See second paragraph, in Persian)

The trend continued during the Iran-Iraq war, and after a post-war relative calm, picked up once again during the unprecedented incursion of the clerical establishment in Iranian universities, the last firm bastion of Iran's reformists. In November 2005 a cleric became chancellor of the University of Tehran, replacing Dr. Faraji-dana. Hojjatol Eslam Abbasali Amid Zanjani (عباسعلی عميد زنجانی) holds no academic degree, and is known for his strong ties to Ayatollah Khomeini. This is the first time ever that Iran's clerical establishment replaces the traditional academia to head a major academic institution. He has however written several books and has served on the faculty of the College of Law as an expert on Islamic Jurisprudence.[11]

Such trends are thought to be accelerating what many see as Iran's largest exodus of talented faculty, students, and researches to western Europe, Canada, and the United States. The lengthy list of Iranian chairs and directors of academia in these countries is arguably a sound index of this reality. Iran's Brain Drain has become a focus of the media both domestically and internationally.[12] Some blame an impoverished job market (which in turn is blamed by many on western imposed Economic sanctions), while others blame a notorious tightening social system. As a symptom of this, in 2006, Iran's president promised to eradicate all universities from what he called "the liberal and secular influence".[13]

A report by The Washington Prism in Jan 2006 claims that the International Monetary Fund considers Iran ranked highest in Brain Drain among developing countries, with an estimated 150,000 people exiting Iran per year. [14] IRNA reports the figure to be 200,000. [15]

And yet in spite of this situation and Iran's technological and industrial isolation due to political conditions in the past 25 years, Iran continues to maintain high levels of education and research in its major universities. Iranian students continue to win technical tournaments in Robotics, Computer Science, and other fields of engineering and science every year (example), and Iranians continue to increase the number of their publications in technical journals despite their highly limited facilities and resources.

To gain admission into universities, Iranian applicants must take a national entrance exam given once a year. Roughly two million applicants take part each year, but only the top 100,000 (or the top 5%) are admitted. To gain entry into the top caliber of schools, a score rank of under 5,000 is usually required. To gain entry into a medical school in Tehran, a score rank of under 100 is desired.

The high level of competition creates a tense atmosphere for many prospective students. Many of the better students however eventually end up migrating to western Europe and North America due to Iran's inability to absorb this highly talented potential workforce into its current job market after graduation. The majority of the Iran's best faculty and skilled specialists also live outside Iran for the same reasons. Other sources also verify that Iran has been topping the brain drain list for some time now. According to the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Higher Education, there are approximately 50,000 Iranian students currently studying abroad.

Prominent libraries in Iran

Large scale libraries existed in Iran throughout many periods in history. One can mention the Gondeshapur library, or the royal library of the Samanid court in which Avicenna was granted special access to, as fine such examples.

The first prototype of a modern national library in Iran was the Library of Dar al-Funun College established in 1851. In 1899 another library called the Nation's Library was inaugurated in Tehran. Finally, the National Library of Iran was inaugurated in 1937.

Iran's major national libraries today are:

References

  1. ^ Patrick Clawson and Michael Rubin. Eternal Iran. Palgrave Macmillan. 2005. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.34
  2. ^ Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995. ISBN 0-8108-2994-0
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ Note that as of 2007, Tehran University of Medical Sciences publishes all its scientific research under the name "Tehran University". Link: http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=445096
  6. ^ See report "بررسي نقش و جايگاه دانشگاه و صنعت در توسعه ي علمي، صنعتي و اقتصادي":[3]
  7. ^ ibid.
  8. ^ [4]
  9. ^ For detailed rankings see: http://www.wikiran.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_Iran#Medical_school_rankings
  10. ^ a b Frances Harrison (January 8, 2007). "Huge cost of Iranian brain drain". BBC News. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ source: BBC Persian
  12. ^ See:
  13. ^ See:
  14. ^ See: http://www.washingtonprism.org/showarticle.cfm?id=213
  15. ^ http://www.payvand.com/news/06/apr/1188.html

See also

External links

Official

Other

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