TEHRAN (Iran News) Saeed Habiba, head of the Organization of Student Affairs at the Ministry of Science, has said that students from 101 countries are currently studying in Iranian universities.

“Despite the current challenges facing the country, the Organization of Student Affairs has developed the necessary strategies and plans to attract international students, and we now have students from 101 countries studying in Iran,” Habiba told IRNA.

The official said that about 60,000 foreign students are currently enrolled in Iranian universities, and new applicants continue to register.

He also said that most of the scholarship students come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and India.

Habiba had previously said Iran plans to increase to 320,000 the number of international students it hosts by the end of the Seventh Development Plan, falling on the Iranian calendar year 1407 (to start on March 2028).

He made those comments while addressing the 5th Regional Meeting of the National Working Group on Attracting Foreign Students, which was held on September 11.

“Despite the current challenges facing the country, the Organization of Student Affairs has developed the necessary strategies and plans to attract international students, and we now have students from 101 countries studying in Iran,” Habiba told IRNA.

The official said that about 60,000 foreign students are currently enrolled in Iranian universities, and new applicants continue to register.

He also said that most of the scholarship students come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and India.

Habiba had previously said Iran plans to increase to 320,000 the number of international students it hosts by the end of the Seventh Development Plan, falling on the Iranian calendar year 1407 (to start on March 2028).

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TEHRAN (Iran News)  Iranian universities and academic centers have denounced the “assassination of knowledge and thought,” following the Israeli assassination of Professor Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, president of the Islamic Azad University.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, they called on “the awakened conscience of the world” to join a global campaign titled Protect Scientists.

“The global academic community today mourns an unprecedented tragedy. The state terrorism of the Zionist regime, in a brazen act of barbarism, has gone beyond targeting infrastructure and military figures and turned its guns directly toward ‘thought’ and ‘the management of science,’” the statement read.

The universities said the killing of Tehranchi, who they called a “martyr scientist,” marked “a rare crime in contemporary history and a direct declaration of war against the sacred sanctuary of the university.”

“His only crime was turning a great university into a hub for ‘innovation, skill-building, and solving human problems,’” they said, adding that his independence of thought was intolerable for the enemies of freedom and progress.

The statement censured international organizations, including UNESCO, over their “deadly silence” and complicity through inaction.

Declaring that silence in the face of this savagery is a betrayal of science and human dignity, the universities urged academics, students, and institutions worldwide to condemn the attack and join the campaign.

By eliminating scientists, the enemies of humanity will never succeed in halting the advancement of science, the statement added.

The universities said the killing of Tehranchi, who they called a “martyr scientist,” marked “a rare crime in contemporary history and a direct declaration of war against the sacred sanctuary of the university.”

“His only crime was turning a great university into a hub for ‘innovation, skill-building, and solving human problems,’” they said, adding that his independence of thought was intolerable for the enemies of freedom and progress.

The statement censured international organizations, including UNESCO, over their “deadly silence” and complicity through inaction.

Declaring that silence in the face of this savagery is a betrayal of science and human dignity, the universities urged academics, students, and institutions worldwide to condemn the attack and join the campaign.

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Tehran University of Medical Sciences won the best rank among Iranian universities. It ranked 16 in pharmacology and toxicology, Mehr reported.

Also, the University of Tehran ranked 25 in Energy Science and Engineering, 27 in Mechanical Engineering, and 31 in Chemical Engineering.

The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, also known as NTU Rankings, provides rankings by six fields including Agriculture, Engineering, Life Science, Medicine, Nature Sciences, and Social Sciences. The 6 fields cover 27 subjects.

They compare the scientific performance of the world’s universities, so bigger universities have a better chance of being on the final list.

The final list of the world’s top institutions is published based on academic publications, from three angles: research productivity, research impact, and research excellence, and eight indicators (number of articles 11 years ago, number of articles last year, number of citations 11 years ago, number of citations two years ago, average citations 11 years ago, h- index (a metric for evaluating the cumulative impact of an author’s scholarly output and performance) two years ago, the number of highly cited papers 10 years ago, and the number of high-impact journals articles two years ago.

Other rankings

Iran ranked second with 80 universities included in D-8 group universities in 2022.

Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia have the largest number of universities in the ranking.

The most important criteria to evaluate the performance of D-8 group universities include research, innovation, education, and international activities.”

Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the University of Tehran, and Tarbiat Modares University ranked 4th, 5th, and 13th, respectively.

The performance of 20 out of the 80 Iranian universities has been analyzed as the top universities

Tehran University of Medical Sciences has won the first rank among the Iranian universities.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (WUR) 2024 placed 73 Iranian universities among the top universities in the world in 10 out of 11 subject areas.

These ten subject rankings included arts and humanities; business and economics; clinical and health; computer science; education; engineering; life sciences; physical sciences; psychology; and social sciences. The eleventh subject was Law.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (WUR) 2024 included 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions

The Ranking is based on the new WUR 3.0 methodology, which includes 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

In this ranking by subject, 73 Iranian universities were included, and 44 out of 185 majors were ranked below 500, ISNA reported.

The second edition of the Webometrics ranking 2023 of the World Universities ranked 440 Iranian institutions among 30,000 top universities worldwide.

Webometrics is an internationally recognized university ranking system that employs a combination of indicators to evaluate universities.

These indicators include Visibility (or Impact), which measures the influence of web content; Transparency (or Openness), which considers the researchers cited the most; and Excellence, determined by the most cited scientific publication.

The Webometrics ranking system is published by Cybermetrics Lab, a research group affiliated with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) based in Madrid, Spain. This ranking undergoes biannual updates in January and July each year, ensuring that the evaluations remain current and relevant for universities worldwide.

The first edition of the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities 2023, in June, ranked 457 Iranian institutions among around 32,000 top universities across the world.

The Academic Ranking of the World Universities (ARWU), also known as Shanghai Ranking, has placed ten universities from Iran among the top 1000 universities in the world in the Shanghai Ranking 2023, according to the head of the Islamic World Science Citation (ISC) Database.

In the 2023 edition of the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings which includes 605 universities, Iran became the third most represented nation with 39 institutions

The latest edition of the QS World University Rankings (2024) has placed seven Iranian universities among the world’s top institutes.

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A look at Iran’s universities in these systems over the past decade shows that these universities have had an upward movement, standing above other Islamic countries, evidently.

Achieving better ranks in different ranking systems not only helps universities increase their reputation but also helps them attract better students and faculty and as a result, improve the quality of education.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings of Universities, The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, The Shanghai Ranking, and Leiden Ranking are among the most important systems publishing rankings for universities.

Each system takes into account specific metrics including scientific impact, international faculty members, elite students, number of professors and students winning Scientific awards, graduate employment, scientific inventions, and validity of the published articles in specific time intervals.

39 Iranian universities in Times ranking

The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings list the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger.

The ranking is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfers, industrial income, and international outlook.

The 2023 ranking includes 605 universities. Iran became the third more represented nation with 39 institutions.

The Mazandaran University of Medical Science, Kurdistan University of Medical Science, Qazvin University of Medical Science, Babol University of Medical Science, and Qom University of Medical Science, ranked respectively 65, 76, 87, 92, and 100, are among the top 100 universities, compared with two universities last year.

7 Iranian universities in QS ranking

The latest edition of the QS World University Rankings (2024) has placed seven Iranian universities among the world’s top institutes.

The ranking features 1,497 institutions worldwide based on the three indicators of Sustainability, Employment Outcomes, and International Research Network.

The Sharif University of Technology, University of Tehran, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, Shiraz University, Shahid Beheshti University, and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad are the top Iranian universities.

27 Islamic countries were present in this ranking. Among Islamic countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey have the largest number of universities with 28, 26, and 25 universities, respectively.

46 Iranian universities in Leiden ranking

The Leiden ranking system published the 2023 report, according to which 46 Iranian universities were among the 1,411 top universities in the world. Among Islamic countries, Iran ranked first, followed by Turkey and Egypt with 36 and 13 universities, respectively.

The University of Tehran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Amirkabir University of Technology, and University of Science and Technology, were the first five top universities from Iran.

Compared with other Islamic countries, Iran is the first country with 46 universities. The whole Islamic countries have presented 145 universities in this ranking. Turkey with 36, Egypt with 13, Saudi Arabia with 11, and Pakistan with 9 universities followed Iran.

65 Iranian universities in Times Asia ranking

In the 2023 edition of the Times Higher Education’s Asian University Ranking System, 669 institutions from 31 Asian countries are included and 65 Iranian universities are among the top Asian institutions.

The Sharif University of Technology is ranked first in the country and 64th in Asia. Mazandaran University of Medical Science (65th), Golestan University of Medical Science (69th), Kurdistan University of Medical Science (71st), and University of Science and Technology (74th) ranked next in Iran, respectively.

A total of 253 universities from 17 Islamic countries presented the 2023 ranking, compared with 209 universities in 2022. In terms of the number of universities, Iran ranked first, with 65 universities, while Turkey (61) and Pakistan (29) ranked second and third.

115 Iranian universities in highly cited institutes

According to the latest bi-monthly edition of the ESI database, the number of the world’s top universities and research institutes in all subject areas is 8,557, of which 115 universities and research institutes from the Islamic Republic of Iran are on this list.

The number of top Iranian universities and research institutes has increased from 112 last year to 115 this year.

Iran’s top universities and research institutes are present in 19 subject areas, and the largest number is in the engineering subject area with 59 universities and research institutes.

The number of institutions in the fields of clinical medicine was 57, chemistry 50, material sciences 25, agricultural sciences 23, pharmacology and toxicology 19, plant and animal sciences 16, environment/ecology 15, social sciences, biology and biochemistry, and computer sciences 13 each, neuroscience and behavior 7, geology 6, physics and immunology 5 each, molecular biology and genetics 4, mathematics and microbiology 2 each, and psychiatry/psychology 1.

34 Iranian universities in Shanghai ranking

The Academic Ranking of the World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is published in two general areas, broad subject fields, and specific subjects. The ranking includes Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

According to Shanghai Ranking’s ARWU, 2021, a total of 34 Iranian universities and institutions were listed among the top 1,000 in the world.

Iran ranks 30th in Nature Index 

The Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural science journals, chosen by an independent group of researchers.

Data in the Nature Index are updated regularly. There are three measures provided by the Nature Index to track affiliation data including the article count (AC), the fractional count (FC), and the weighted fractional count (WFC).

Based on the latest edition of this ranking (Dec. 1, 2021- Nov.30, 2022), China, America, and Germany ranked first to third, respectively.

Iran ranked 30th in the world. Shiraz University, Institute for Research in Fundamental Science, and Tehran University ranked first to third.

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Female-only centers of Alzahra University of Tehran, Kosar University of Bojnurd, and Hazrat-e Masoumeh University of Qom will accept Afghan girl students, deputy science minister for international affairs Vahid Haddadi-Asl announced.

Alzahra University announced readiness to admit up to 50 students, but the quota will be increased if more dormitories become available, he added.

Hazrat-e Masoumeh University of Qom will also accept at least 300 Afghan female students, both in offline and online courses, according to Haddadi-Asl.

The Taliban-run higher education ministry has announced that female students would not be allowed access to the country’s universities until further notice.

“You all are informed to immediately implement the mentioned order of suspending the education of females until further notice,” said a letter issued to all government and private universities, signed by the Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem.

Iran is home to over 800,000 registered refugees and some 2.6 million undocumented Afghans. Today, more than 500,000 Afghan children- including undocumented Afghans and those who have newly arrived in Iran following the Taliban-takeover-are benefitting from Iran’s inclusive education policies, one of the most progressive in the world.

Many of the refugees living in Iran are second and third-generation, according to the UNHCR.

Some 108,000 students from 117 countries have enrolled in Iranian universities for the current academic year (started September 23), Mohammad Mohammadi Masoudi, an official with the Ministry of Science, has said.

Twenty-five percent of the foreign students studying in Iranian universities are Afghan nationals, he added.

The 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.

In the current school year which began on September 23, about 300,000 new foreign students enrolled in Iranian schools.

For the time being, 560,000 foreign students are studying in schools across the country, Education Minister Yousef Nouri said.

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The Young University Rankings is based on the same 13 performance indicators as the flagship THE World University Rankings, but the weightings have been adjusted to give less weight to reputation.

The universities are judged across all their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook – to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available.

The 2021 ranking includes 475 universities, up from 414 in 2020.

In 2019, 13 Iranian universities were included in this ranking among 351 universities, in 2020, the number of universities increased to 20.

Kordestan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan University, Shiraz University of Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan University of Technology, Yasuj University, Mohaghegh Ardabili University, University of Kordestan, Shahid Madani University of Azerbaijan, and Kerman University of Medical Sciences are the first top universities among 26 Iranians.

Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University tops the list, followed by Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Performance in 2021

Most recently, some 34 Iranian universities and institutions were listed among the top 1,000 in the world, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2021.

Some thirty-six Iranian universities have been listed among more than 1,000 major universities worldwide, according to the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking for 2021.

The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings has listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

Six Iranian universities have been placed among the world’s top universities announced by the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.

Times Higher Education also has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2021, listing 47 Iranian universities, which shows an increase of 7 universities compared to the last year.

With 47 Iranian universities ranked among 1,527 top universities of 93 countries in the world in 2021 rankings, Iran achieved a great improvement in the academic field.

Some 21 Islamic countries were also listed in the ranking. However, Iran holds the highest share with 47 universities.

With a scientific growth rate of 10.4 percent in 2019, Iran ranked second among the top 25 countries in the world, next to China with a growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to the Web of Science website.

According to statistics released by the International Web of Science Database, Iran’s citation rank has always been on the rise over the last eight years, from 24 in 2012 to 16 in 2019.

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According to the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021), Iranian universities are projected to attract about 75,000 foreign students, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The universities have the capacity to admit up to 90,000 foreign students, however, it requires the creation of appropriate educational infrastructure, the expansion of diplomacy, appropriate publicity, and so on, Rahimi explained.

Currently, foreign nationals constitute 1.64 percent of the country’s student population.

According to the 20-Year National Vision Document (ending 2025), foreign students should account for 1.8 percent of the whole student population, which is likely to even reach 2 percent, Afshin Akhoundzadeh, an official at the Organization of Student Affairs, said.

“Some 57,675 foreign nationals from 133 countries are studying in Iranian universities, 30,600 of whom are studying in universities affiliated with the Ministry of Science, while 25,000 others are receiving education in Azad University, and about 2,000 in medical universities.”

Fifty-seven percent of the international students are studying for a master’s degree, 27 percent for a bachelor’s degree and 15 percent are educating to receive a Ph.D., while the remaining one percent study at other levels.

Law, Persian literature and computer engineering are the top three fields of study for foreign students in Iran, while civil engineering, business management, political science, English language and literature, Quran and hadith sciences, international relations, and electrical engineering, and other majors with the highest number of non-Iranian students.

In 2013, 35 centers were allowed to admit foreign students, which has increased to 77 in 2021.

Iranian universities shine at global rankings 2021

Most recently, thirty-six Iranian universities have been listed among more than 1,000 major universities worldwide, according to the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking for 2021.

The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings has listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

Six Iranian universities have been placed among the world’s top universities announced by the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.

Times Higher Education also has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2021, listing 47 Iranian universities, which shows an increase of 7 universities compared to the last year.

With 47 Iranian universities ranked among 1,527 top universities of 93 countries in the world in 2021 rankings, Iran achieved a great improvement in the academic field.

Some 21 Islamic countries were also listed in the ranking. However, Iran holds the highest share with 47 universities.

With a scientific growth rate of 10.4 percent in 2019, Iran ranked second among the top 25 countries in the world, next to China with a growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to the Web of Science website.

According to statistics released by the International Web of Science Database, Iran’s citation rank has always been on the rise over the last eight years, from 24 in 2012 to 16 in 2019.

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QS is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insight to the global higher education sector, whose mission is to enable motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfill their potential through educational achievement, international mobility, and career development.

The QS World University Rankings portfolio, inaugurated in 2004, has grown to become the world’s most popular source of comparative data about university performance.

Some 1,000 of the world’s top universities are ranked using six different indicators to compile QS World University Rankings 2021. Universities are evaluated according to the following six metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio.

As per the data published on QS World University Rankings official website, Sharif University of Technology, ranked 381, Amirkabir University of Technology, ranked 465, the University of Tehran, ranked between 521 to 530, Iran University of Science and Technology, ranked between 541 to 550, Shiraz University, ranked between 751 to 800, and Shahid Beheshti University with 1001 to 1200 rank, are the top 6 Iranian universities among world-class universities.

Some 24 Islamic countries participated in this ranking. Among them, Malaysia with 22 universities (the highest number of universities), Turkey with 21, and Indonesia with 16 universities had the highest number of attendees, respectively.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tops the list for a record tenth consecutive year in QS ranking. MIT is one of five American institutions in this year’s top 10.

Performance in 2021

Most recently, thirty-six Iranian universities have been listed among more than 1,000 major universities worldwide, according to the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking for 2021.

The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings has listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

Six Iranian universities have been placed among the world’s top universities announced by the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.

Times Higher Education also has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2021, listing 47 Iranian universities, which shows an increase of 7 universities compared to the last year.

With 47 Iranian universities ranked among 1,527 top universities of 93 countries in the world in 2021 rankings, Iran achieved a great improvement in the academic field.

Some 21 Islamic countries were also listed in the ranking. However, Iran holds the highest share with 47 universities.

With a scientific growth rate of 10.4 percent in 2019, Iran ranked second among the top 25 countries in the world, next to China with a growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to the Web of Science website.

According to statistics released by the International Web of Science Database, Iran’s citation rank has always been on the rise over the last eight years, from 24 in 2012 to 16 in 2019.

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The ranking is prepared based on the indicators of scientific impact and collaboration.

The rankings are compiled by the CWTS (Dutch: Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies, CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

The CWTS Leiden Ranking offers a sophisticated set of bibliometric indicators that provide statistics at the level of universities on scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity. It stands for a multidimensional perspective on university performance.

The number of Iranian universities in the Leiden ranking has increased every year until 2020, but in 2021 it remains unchanged compared to the previous year, Mohammad Javad Dehghani, head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), said.

With the presence of 36 universities in this ranking system, Iran, as in previous years, ranks first among Islamic countries in terms of the number of top universities, he stated, adding, Turkey and Egypt are ranked second and third with 32 and 8 universities, respectively.

Overall, in the Leiden 2021 ranking, most of the country’s universities have improved ranks compared to 2020, he highlighted.

He went on to note that Tehran University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Amirkabir University of Technology, Sharif University of Technology, Iran Science and Technology, Isfahan University of Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti, Tabriz Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad Tehran Science and Research Branch, Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Mashhad Medical Sciences, Shiraz Medical Sciences, Iran Medical Sciences, Shahid Bahonar, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Sahand University of Technology, were listed in the ranking.

In terms of scientific impact, almost all universities have performed better in terms of rankings compared to last year, and the University of Tehran, which is the first university in the country, has risen from 140 in 2020 to 134 in 2021, Dehghani emphasized.

In terms of collaboration, in general, there is no significant improvement in the ranking of the country’s universities. However, the best ranking of the country has increased from 201 to 198 by the University of Tehran.

In terms of open access publishing, the ranking of the country’s universities has not changed much, the best ranking in the country has been obtained by the University of Tehran, which has been upgraded from 201 in 2020 to 198 in 2021.

In gender diversity, universities of Tehran, Tarbiat Modares, Tehran Medical Sciences, Mashhad Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences, Iran Medical Sciences, Shiraz Medical Sciences, Tabriz University, and Gilan University have been upgraded compared to 2020.

Iranian universities performance in 2021

The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings has listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

Six Iranian universities have been placed among the world’s top universities announced by the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.

Times Higher Education also has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2021, listing 47 Iranian universities, which shows an increase of 7 universities compared to the last year.

With 47 Iranian universities ranked among 1,527 top universities of 93 countries in the world in 2021 rankings, Iran achieved a great improvement in the academic field.

Some 21 Islamic countries were also listed in the ranking. However, Iran holds the highest share with 47 universities.

With a scientific growth rate of 10.4 percent in 2019, Iran ranked second among the top 25 countries in the world, next to China with a growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to the Web of Science website.

According to statistics released by the International Web of Science Database, Iran’s citation rank has always been on the rise over the last eight years, from 24 in 2012 to 16 in 2019.

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Following the explosion of Sayed Al-Shohada Girls’ High School in Kabul, Al-Zahra University’s board members approved a plan to support the education of talented and influential women and promote the status of women in Afghanistan.

Under the plan, 25 scholarships, called “Scholarship for Erudite Women,” was allocated to girls graduating from Sayed Al-Shohada High School in all fields covered by Al-Zahra University and five other special scholarships, named “Maryam Mirzakhani Scholarship” after the late Iranian mathematician, were granted to applicants to study mathematics.

The Ministry of Science, Research and Technology had offered 25 scholarships to Al-Zahra University to support the humanitarian move, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

The explosion left 85 female students dead and some 150 others injured.

Living conditions of foreign nationals in Iran

The population of Afghan immigrants residing in Iran is about two to three million, some of whom sometimes have problems with identity cards or do not have identification codes.

Some 120,000 refugees residing in Iran are now covered by health insurance.

At the end of 2018, Iran hosted close to one million refugees, making it the sixth-largest refugee host country in the world. The country was also the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in 2019, hosting 951,142 Afghan refugees and 28,268 Iraqi refugees, according to the UNHCR.

One of the largest and most protracted urban refugee populations in the world is living in Iran; about 97 percent of refugees live in urban and semi-urban areas, while three percent are residing in 20 refugee resorts run by the UNHCR’s main government counterpart.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

Despite the challenges, Iran has continued to generously give refugees access to education and health services. Iran is one of the handfuls of countries in the world that offer refugees the option to enroll in national health insurance for essential secondary and tertiary public health services in the same way as Iranian nationals.

The national insurance scheme allows for free COVID-19 treatment and hospitalization. It also subsidizes the cost of surgeries, dialysis, radiology, laboratory tests, outpatient care, and more.

Education for foreign nationals

Many of the refugees living in Iran are the second and third generation, according to the UNHCR.

There are 40,000 Afghan students in the country, according to the official report, 17,000 of them are graduated, while the unofficial report is estimated at 26,000.

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