The confluence of increased economic hardship and recent protests in Iran continues to put tremendous stress on Iranian students who are in the process of applying to graduate school programs, in the United States. The significant devaluation of Iran’s currency in the past few months, and the crumbling inflation rates, have made it excessively difficult for top-level students and their families to afford the recently increased application fees. In early December of 2022, the government of Iran imposed a 10-fold increase in the cost of obtaining an official transcript from Iran’s public universities, putting another excessive financial burden on these students. These financial hardships are negatively impacting the students’ ability to apply to our graduate school programs in the United States.

For decades, Iranian students have continued to create impactful and long-standing contributions to research, education, and technology transfer in our academic institutes.  We believe there are ways by which our universities and administrations can help maintain this trend and support Iranian students in their pursuit of academic excellence. To do so, we propose the following measures for the Academic Year 2023-24:

1.     Consider a waiver to the admission fees of applicants from Iran; Such measure can be taken either broadly or on a case-by-case basis.

2.     Consider an alternative process to review unofficial transcripts from Iranian applicants. This can, for example, include closely engaging Iranian American faculty members in the review process of the transcripts; or directly contacting student references for verification of their transcripts.