Global Spotlight: Iran

From staunch allies to the nadir of the “great satan”/“axis of evil” era to a thaw and now the Trump era, Iran’s and the United States’s international higher education relationship has fluctuated dramatically with the vicissitudes of rhetoric and policy. From 51,310 students sent to the United States in 1979–80 immediately following the Iranian Revolution, the number dropped dramatically, and by 1999–2000, the number had fallen to 1,885—the lowest it had been since the 1950s. 

In more recent years, as tensions between the two countries began to relax, Iran returned to prominence as a significant sender. Definitive data are still forming about the specific impact of the Trump administration’s executive order severely restricting travel from six countries in the Middle East and Africa—including Iran—but early indications forecast a significant downturn: In an interassociation survey report on international applications at U.S. universities for the fall of 2017 released by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 39 percent of universities reported declines in undergraduate applications from the Middle East, and 31 percent reported declines in graduate applications.

According to these data, U.S. institutions have a lot to lose:

$3,000-$5,000: Average amount spent in Iran on the application process to U.S. universities as of 2014, representing five to seven months of income for an urban Iranian family.

11: Rank of Iran among top countries of origin sending students to U.S. universities in 2015–16 (higher than the United Kingdom or Germany).

6,391%: Percentage increase in the number of students enrolled in Iranian