Elaboration on Article by ISCA News Regarding TUMS Afghan Students’ Tuition Fees

ISCA News, in an statement on 7 June 2019, stated that the tuition fee of Afghan students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences is in contradiction with the directives of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

According to the Office of Public Relations at TUMS Office of Vice-Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs, the explanation TUMS officials was as below:

Tehran University of Medical Sciences, based on the scientific ability of its faculty members, its high quality of educational services, as well as advanced educational facilities, as the leading university of medical sciences in the region, has attracted international students in 102 different majors to expand and has strived toward the realization of resistance economy. It has acquired a pioneer role in various fields of medical sciences and has established interactions with the countries of the region.

In this regard, about 900 international students from all five continents and 46 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and African countries such as Nigeria, are studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, which is testimony to the successes achieved in this field. Currently, this university hosts 59 Afghan students in different majors.

However, as any other international university, TUMS follows a developed set of rules and regulations such as the impossibility of admitting applicants of Iranian nationality as international students, accepting tuition fees in the form of foreign currency, and the impossiblity of employment for international graduates in the country. International applicants are informed of their educational circumstances and regulations beforehand.

Afghan students, also with the same knowledge, and in order to be trained to serve their home country of Afghanistan, were accepted without entrance exams similar to other international students, and some even received 75% discount scholarships for their tuition fee on the basis of their need and academic excellence.

On the other hand, due to the high level of competition between elite Iranian students for studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the university has created a surplus capacity for international students, which proves quite costly, and the university assumes that these costs and educational expenses should be compensated by receiving tuition fees in the form of foreign currency from international students who have entered TUMS without an exam and without government subsidies.

Is it fair and based on educational justice to make an exception for Afghan students at TUMS while many qualified Iranian students are willing to pay more than international students, and while the tuition paid by other Muslim students is in foreign currencies such as the US dollar?

Indeed, recently, in a visit by the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Iran, the university announced that it is prepared to assist the universities of Afghanistan and to conduct student admissions to required fields of study in international campuses.

The board of trustees at Tehran University of Medical Sciences , in its 44th meeting on 27 January 2015, confirmed the acceptance of tuition fee in the form of US Dollars, and the university never accepted the Iranian Rial as the currency for the tuition fee of international students, as it would be against its rules.

Anyway, according to this explanation and the mismatch of the subject with the approval of the university's board of trustees, the issue of how to receive tuition fees from Afghan students is observed by the Deputy Minister for Education at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and obviously, the university will act according to the response of the inquiry and the future directives.