February 07 2020
The number of Iranian nationals studying in the United States fell last year for the first time in 14 years although that was no surprise given the Trump Admin-istration’s harsh approach on visas to Iranians.
Statistics gathered for the 2018-19 academic year show that 12,142 Iranian nationals—not including Iranian-Americans—registered for classes at US colleges and universities in the fall of 2018. That was a 5.0 percent drop from the previous school year.
Until then, the number of Iranians studying in the US had risen every year since 2004, reversing the rapid decline that took place after the 1979 revolution, when more than 50,000 Iranians studied in the United States. The low point was 1,660 Iranian students in the US in 1998-99.
The Islamic Republic does not provide scholarships for its students to study in the United States, Canada or Britain, so all these students are paying their own way or had received scholarships from their colleges and universities.
Altogether, 1.1 million foreign students from 210 countries and territories came to the United States to study in 2018-19. For the 10th year in a row, Chinese students came in first in the statistics with 370,000 students in the US.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science in Tehran, which oversees Iranian higher education, reported that Iranian universities are hosting 40,000 foreign students from 129 countries. It said the largest group was studying Persian language and literature.
