Deputy for international affairs and technological exchange stated: in the past two and a half years, about 800 scientific elites have returned to the country and the level of immigration of Iranian students and elites is below the global average.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Ali Morteza Birang, deputy for international affairs and technological exchange, stated in an exclusive interview with Etemad Newspaper about the immigration of Iranian elites to other countries: in the past years, false statistics have been published on the immigration of students and elites from the country.

He continued: sometimes these lies are repeated so many times that they turn into beliefs. Now, you can search the following sentence on the internet in Farsi: “According to the report of International Monetary Fund, Iran is ranked first among 91 countries in terms of immigration of elites” and see the results.

According to Birang, we have read these reports line by line and have found no such statements. However, these lies exist on the internet, and when people hear them on the news, they think that they are definitely true.

Deputy for international affairs and technological exchange asserted: there are so many false news on the immigration of Iranian students and elites in the media that led to the establishment of a research task on the subject.

He continued: this study was conducted according to foreign resources, including reports from organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD), UNESCO, and immigration office of the United States.

In another part of his speech, Birang affirmed: the title of this research is “comparative evaluation of condition of Iran in terms of immigration and international displacement of educational individuals”, which is published by the technology studies research center and is full of comparative statistics, diagrams and tables. The result of this research can be summed up in one sentence: “according to the statistics by OECD, Iran is not among the countries with highest number of students immigrated to advanced countries.” Having 32 thousand and 758 students, Iran is not among the top 10 countries that send students abroad.

According to the deputy for international affairs and technological exchange, America is one of the developed countries with the highest level of accepting students from around the world. According to this research, Iran has ranked 19 (among 74 evaluated countries) in terms of sending students to America with the rate of nine thousand and 600 students.

He continued: the total number of Iranian international students reached 48 thousand in 2015, which is significantly different, compared to the statistics reported by some media that stated that annually 150-180 thousand elites or students emigrate from Iran.

In terms of regarding the immigration of students for studying or working in other countries as “Brain Drain” expressed in the research by the national elites foundation, Birang stated: leaving the country to study and acquire knowledge and experience is not a problem. Transfer of human resource is a global and increasing trend, and the number of foreign students in world has doubled in the past 10 years.

The Term “Brain Drain” Is Unscientific

He also asserted: the ratio of Iranian students outside the country to Iranian students inside the country is below the global average and similar to America. It means that the same amount of student leave the United Stated to continue studying in other countries.

According to Birang, the level of immigration of Iranian students cannot be compared to the number of students exiting the Saudi Arabia.

He believes that the term “Brain Drain” is an unscientific term. A person who has left the country for education and work does not escape of migrate from his country. Why do we put this label on them? Why do we use such a term in a way that it is institutionalized in the society, leading to the believing of these people that they have escaped from Iran and must not return?

Deputy for international affairs and technological exchange marked: leaving of students to study abroad is not interpreted as the immigration of elites. Our religion recommends acquiring knowledge beyond the borders, in a way that many Iranian scholars and scientists have done so in the past decades. In fact, exiting the country to acquire knowledge in not negative. The main problem is lack of returning to the country or effective disconnection with the homeland and exiting the cycle of serving the country, for which we have a plan.

Pointing out the program designed by the national elites foundation, Birang expressed: the national elites foundation has make great efforts in the past two and a half years to return elites to the country. This program is for cooperation with non-resident Iranian experts and scientists, who are willing to return to the country or collaborate with domestic scientific organizations.

He continued: this program was initiated in 2014, leading to the return of many elites to the country, who cooperated with lectures and holding science workshops. However, 125 individuals completely returned to Iran in 2015. Last year, 450 people returned, which makes the total number of 800 individuals returning to and working in the country.

According to Birang, people have significantly welcomed this program, in a way that insufficient budget has made the implementation of this plan more difficult. Before the last year, graduates of 400 top universities of the world were able to ask for loans and use the facilities of this plan. However, in the beginning of this year, we announced that only graduates from the top 100 universities of the world can send their request to the Vice-Presidency due to great welcoming of the plan and limited resources.

10 percent of the elites returning to the country are from the graduates of 20 top universities of the world

Deputy for international affairs and technological exchange added: similar to the process of last year, elites are returning the country. In total, 10 percent of those returning to Iran are graduates of 20 top universities of the world, 30% of whom were not Iran for more than 10 years.

In addition, he conveyed: in the normal process, it takes more than a year for a person to become a faculty member in the country after passing the process of confirmation of documents and recruitment process by universities. This process has been modified in the form of this plan.

Birang stated: those who are accepted by the plan send their request before returning to the country. During 25 days, the files are evaluated and long-distance interviews are held to define the cooperation model. From the day of their return, the location of their occupation is predetermined.

According to the deputy for international affairs and technological exchange, they will receive a salary and insurance from the first month and can use the facilities of specialized military service. Moreover, they will have free access to the strategic technologies laboratory network.

He mentioned that the first year of return is a difficult time, which is passed with the support of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs and the national elites foundation. The returned individuals have one year to prove their abilities and approve their documents.

Furthermore, Birang affirmed: during this time, the elites are evaluated by the related university or research center. Special conditions will also be provided to establish similar business in Iran for those who have had the experience of entrepreneurship and being active in foreign knowledge-based universities.

Mentioning that about 50 startups have been established by elites to this day, Birang expressed: more than 500 domestic top graduates are recruited by these companies.