TEHRAN – Haider Abd Dahed, the Iraqi deputy minister of higher education and scientific research, has said his country is interested in sending talented students to study in Iran's top state universities. 

“We are optimistic to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to realize this goal,” IRNA quoted Dahed as saying.

The official made the remarks on Sunday in a meeting with the head of the Organization of Student Affairs, Saeed Habiba.

Referring to Iranian universities' positions in international rankings, Dahed said the quality of education and the academic degree are really important for us. Iraqi students start majoring in medical fields, but according to the law, they have to return to Iraq after a year. We want this problem to be solved so that Iraqi students can benefit from the educational opportunity to complete their courses here in Iran.

For his part, Habiba highlighted the cultural, religious, and historical commonalities between the two nations, which can lay the ground for the enhancement of scientific and educational cooperation. Referring to the country’s five-year plan, the official said, “We look forward to attracting the best Iraqi students to study here, and we will not ignore their educational weaknesses even if it leads to their expulsion.”

Currently, 30,000 Iraqi students are majoring mainly in engineering and medical field majors, in different universities of the country; a large proportion of them are postgraduates.

The official went on to propose exchanging professors and students to further the collaborations between the two countries.

On Saturday, Dahed met Science Minister Hossein Simaei-Sarraf. The official agreed to sign an MOU according to which Iran will grant scholarships to top Iraqi students to study in the best Iranian universities.

He had also paid visits to some universities and higher education centers, and signed MOUs with Shahid Beheshti University and Sharif University of Technology, saorg.ir reported.

MT/MG