Iran: Students Abroad Barred From Iran-Related Research
By GVF
An official at Iran’s Ministry of Science Research and Technology has said that Iranian students abroad will be barred from pursuing research topics that are somehow related to Iran.
According to the semi-official Mehr news agency, during a press conference on Tuesday, Mohammad Hossein Majles-Ara told reporters: “the ban on choosing dissertation topics about Iran is for students who are self-funded during their studies abroad, as well as students who receive government funding.”
Majles-Ara who who oversees graduate students at the Ministry, added that only certain students on Science Ministry scholarships would be allowed to carry out research on Iran-related topics sponsored by the government.
The Science Minister’s deputy on student affairs on the other hand claimed that the reason for prohibiting Iranian students from choosing their country of birth as the theme for dissertation topics was that “the information in a dissertation is related to inside [the country]” and “some of the topics chosen by students might be repetitive.”
In recent years Iranian students’ dessertations in foreign universities has become an important source of obtaining information from inside Iran.As such government seems to be trying to block the flow of information from inside Iran.