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Number 65 ● February 27, 2014  

AFTER YEARS OF DENIAL: THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES THE BRAIN DRAIN CRISIS


Raz Zimmt*

 

Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology (RCT), Reza Faraji Dana, recently admitted that approximately 150,000 educated Iranians emigrate abroad every year. At a ceremony honoring winners of the 18th Scientific Olympiad of Students at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, the minister described brain drain, also known as “human capital flight,” as the main cause of the current economic losses of developing countries. He noted that Iran invests approximately $1 million in each Iranian with a higher education, and having 150,000 emigrate each year is equivalent to $150 billion in foreign aid annually. Faraji Dana further stressed that Iran does not oppose students traveling aboard for educational purposes. However, many do not return because suitable conditions are lacking, which causes Iran to suffer significant economic losses. Unlike the situation in Iran, the minister cited China as an example of a country that successfully entices young people who study in the US to return home, because they are able to offer particularly high salaries. Conversely, the Iranian authorities concentrate their efforts on tallying the number of educated citizens who leave (Entekhab).

 

The comments made by the RCT Minister renewed the discussions about the flight of educated people from Iran. In recent years, alarming data about the phenomena has been published. Figures published by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2011 indicate that Iran is positioned second in the world (after China) in the number of doctoral students studying in the United States who do not wish to return. Approximately 89% of the Iranian doctoral students studying in the US expressed their desire to remain there after completing their degree. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also published data indicating the magnitude of the problem. A report published in 2009 showed that Iran tops a list of 91 developing countries suffering from brain drain. According to the IMF’s data, 150,000-180,000 educated Iranians emigrate abroad each year. The high unemployment rate, low salaries for lecturers and experts, inadequate scientific level, and the unstable political and social situation were noted as the main causes of the brain drain that exacts a financial toll worth more than $50 million every year.

 

In May 2012, the reformist daily Shargh published the results from another study conducted among young Iranians who have won medals in Scientific Olympics in physics, chemistry mathematics and computer science. According to that study, some 140 out of 225 (62%) of the Iranian high school students who won medals in 53 competitions in 1993-2007 emigrated to the West after completing their education, mostly to the United States or Canada. Nearly 70% of the medalists in physics, 76.7% in mathematics, 50% in computer science and 50% in chemistry chose to live abroad (Iran Emrooz). Additional data shows that in 2011 and 2012, 48% of the graduates in engineering from Tehran’s Sharif Unversity, one of the country’s top technological institutions, went overseas to continue their academic education. The percentage of women completing a bachelor’s degree who decide to leave Iran (58%) is even higher than that of men (45%). Of the college graduates who decide to continue their education abroad, 37.3% go to the US, 6.8% to Canada and 4.3% to Europe (website of the University of California in Santa Cruz).

 

In recent years, these figures have been the source of great concern for Iranian experts who have called on the government to take the necessary  steps to reduce the phenomenon. Dr. Ali Meghdari, a former vice president of Sharif University recently asked the government to increase its investment in universities in order to encourage highly educated Iranians living abroad to return. He stressed that it is essential to create good economic, occupational and scientific conditions to lure Iranian scientists back home for the benefit of Iran's national interests (Tehran Emrooz).

 

Under the previous government, top officials tried to minimize the severity of the country's brain drain crisis. In October 2010, the RCT Minister, Kamran Daneshjou, claimed that figures concerning the problem were greatly exaggerated and the data indicating its severity was no longer current. He also contended that the data presented by the IMF was related to the 1990s, and even then it was probably inaccurate. His Deputy Minister for Student Affairs, Mahmoud Molabashi, further belittled the severity of the problem and claimed that the phrase “brain drain” was meaningless and unscientific. In November 2010, Molabashi was quoted saying that Iran does not face a brain drain but rather experience a “brain cycle,” of student exchanges. He asserted that there is nothing objectionable about Iranian students going abroad to study and this inclination should not be considered a brain drain. According to Molabashi, since the Iranian Revolution, the RCT Ministry had sent 12,500 students overseas as part of educational exchanges and only 400, less than 3%, had not returned after completing their education. Furthermore, he noted that while approximately 80,000 Iranian students study abroad, there are four million students from more than 90 countries studying in Iran. These declarations made by government officials were met with strong domestic criticism, and taken as evidence showing that the government of Ahmadinejad was ignoring a serious problem rather than helping to find a solution.

 

The recent declaration by Rouhani’s RCT Minister may be a sign of change in the Iranian government policy, and the new government’s willingness to recognize the severity of the problem and strive to find ways to deal with it. The severe economic and social distress that educated young Iranians face casts a great deal of doubt on the government's ability to reduce the brain drain without a major improvement in the economic situation

 


*Dr. Raz Zimmt (PhD) is a research fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies 


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Iran Pulse No. 65 ● February 27, 2014

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