Shahin Akhoundzadeh, deputy minister for research and technology at the regime’s health ministry, said meritocracy is the most important factor in retaining elites. He reported that “most of the top 100 entrants in the university entrance exam” in medical sciences are emigrating because of the lack of suitable conditions for employment in the country.
On Monday, September 15, in an interview with the state-run ISNA news agency, Akhoundzadeh said graduates in basic sciences often return to Iran after some time, but clinical specialists, especially doctors, show far less interest in coming back.
He added: “If we show our young elites that university presidents, ministers, and deputies are chosen from among the elites—that is, if meritocracy rules—then talented youth will be motivated to serve in the country.”
Akhoundzadeh reminded that one of the most important reasons for emigration is that “our elites do not see meritocracy in the country.”
These remarks come as Iran’s regime president Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly pointed the finger at the educated class regarding elite emigration while ignoring the role of the ruling establishment.
On September 11, Pezeshkian blamed the educational system for the wave of youth and elite emigration, saying: “The schools we have built today raise one-dimensional and arrogant individuals instead of well-rounded humans. People who do not believe in their country and homeland and think they can only achieve a position abroad.”
In May, he had also said: “Why do we educate elites in a way that makes them want to go abroad? What kind of education is this, when 90% want to emigrate?”
Emigration of professors
The deputy minister for research and technology of the regime’s health ministry further stated that in the past one to two years, the number of faculty members emigrating from the country’s medical universities has not increased.
At the same time, Akhoundzadeh said that whenever Iran’s economic and social problems intensify, the likelihood of new waves of elite emigration increases.
Growing Wave of Professor Migration Poses Serious Challenge To Iran’s Scientific Future
He emphasized that improving the research environment could prevent elite emigration: “A large number of top-ranked medical students working with me on research projects believe that if proper research conditions existed in the country, they would not emigrate.”
Earlier, on March 23, Mohammad Jalili, head of the faculty recruitment center at the health ministry, warned that faculty departures had reached the country’s top universities.
In recent years, the growing trend of youth and elite emigration has raised widespread concerns.
On June 10, Bahram Salavati, researcher and former director of Iran Migration Observatory, reported that for the first time in the country’s history, the number of Iranian students abroad had exceeded 100,000, and only 1% of them return to Iran.
