Iran's 'brain drain' decimates regime's academic elite

[SherriMunnerlyn]

Iran's 'brain drain' decimates regime's academic elite

NCRI - The 'brain drain' is intensifying in Iran as its most highly-educated students flee the regime to work abroad, a senior official has admitted.Qasem Ahmadi, a member of the Education Commission of the regime’s parliament, blamed the exodus on 'neglect' of the nation's most gifted people by the ruling elite.He told the parliament's website on July 16: "Many of those ranking first to tenth in college entry exams in the past 15 years have fled the country."It is very unfortunate for an education system to lose a student or university student that it has invested in for two decades. The issue of the brain drain and migration of the elite has long been regarded a serious damage to the education system, but today it is affected the country’s scientific community."According to the International Monetary Fund, Iran lost 15 per cent of its most highly educated people in the early 1990s, when more than 150,000 Iranians left the country every year and 25 per cent of all Iranians with post-secondary education lived abroad in 'developed' countries.

A report by the International Monetary Fund in 2009 also found that Iran topped the list of countries losing their academic elite, with an annual loss of 150,000 to 180,000 specialists - equivalent to a capital loss of $50 billion.


Iran's 'brain drain' decimates regime's academic elite

I believe this to be a legitimate story, but a cautionary statement , it is an article written by a resistance group.

Iran remains a country against whom a lot of propaganda is flung at.

Finding the truth can be a difficult task.

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

Speaking of stepping into propaganda, the very first article I read about this resistance group takes me there.

Text of speech by Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance:I am very delighted to be speaking with all of you today.

Iran Resistance

This is the leader of the Mujahadeen Kulq, the PKO, once designated a terrorist group by the US

 

[Coyote]

It doesn't surprise me - we get a lot of Iranian MS and PHD applicants at the University I work for.

I found another article, that says a bit more: Iran: Coping With The World's Highest Rate Of Brain Drain

Vahid Garousi emigrated to Canada about three years ago, after graduating in computer engineering from one of Iran's best technical universities. Garoussi says he left for economic, social, and educational reasons.

"For a software engineer in Iran, you can find a quite well-paying job [by Iranian standards]. You can get something like 500,000 toumans a month [about $600], but still that [amount of] money is not something that [will give you a comfortable life]. So this was the economic reason. Then I had social reasons to leave Iran. The example I'm telling now is that you couldn't listen to music in your car -- Iranian pop music or I like Turkish pop music. There are many examples of these social restrictions you can think of. [And] there is no freedom of speech."

Garousi, now a Ph.D. student in Canada, adds that educational opportunities also were better abroad: "Then I had educational reasons. For example, you don't have good access to the Internet with high speed [and] then you have Internet censorship in Iran. [The authorities] have filtered many websites, even educational websites. We didn't have good libraries in Iran. We didn't have new books, new technical books. And, for example, here in Canada I can go to very prestigious conferences but in Iran, because of U.S. sanctions, Iranians cannot submit papers to [professional groups like the] IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers)."

Garousi says he won't return unless many things change. His story is increasingly typical. Every year more than 150,000 educated young people leave Iran for countries such as the U.S. and Canada. Some 4 million Iranians now live abroad. Few of these will ever return.

Many emigres cite a lack of basic social freedoms. In Iran, boys and girls cannot mingle together in public. Dancing is forbidden. Women and girls must cover their hair and bodies...

Also, another one from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6240287.stm

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

It doesn't surprise me - we get a lot of Iranian MS and PHD applicants at the University I work for.

I found another article, that says a bit more: Iran: Coping With The World's Highest Rate Of Brain Drain

Vahid Garousi emigrated to Canada about three years ago, after graduating in computer engineering from one of Iran's best technical universities. Garoussi says he left for economic, social, and educational reasons.

"For a software engineer in Iran, you can find a quite well-paying job [by Iranian standards]. You can get something like 500,000 toumans a month [about $600], but still that [amount of] money is not something that [will give you a comfortable life]. So this was the economic reason. Then I had social reasons to leave Iran. The example I'm telling now is that you couldn't listen to music in your car -- Iranian pop music or I like Turkish pop music. There are many examples of these social restrictions you can think of. [And] there is no freedom of speech."

Garousi, now a Ph.D. student in Canada, adds that educational opportunities also were better abroad: "Then I had educational reasons. For example, you don't have good access to the Internet with high speed [and] then you have Internet censorship in Iran. [The authorities] have filtered many websites, even educational websites. We didn't have good libraries in Iran. We didn't have new books, new technical books. And, for example, here in Canada I can go to very prestigious conferences but in Iran, because of U.S. sanctions, Iranians cannot submit papers to [professional groups like the] IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers)."

Garousi says he won't return unless many things change. His story is increasingly typical. Every year more than 150,000 educated young people leave Iran for countries such as the U.S. and Canada. Some 4 million Iranians now live abroad. Few of these will ever return.

Many emigres cite a lack of basic social freedoms. In Iran, boys and girls cannot mingle together in public. Dancing is forbidden. Women and girls must cover their hair and bodies...

Also, another one from BBC: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Huge cost of Iranian brain drain

Thanks, a much better source.