Iran trains elite science students but many leave for opportunities abroad

Iran has built a strong system to find gifted school students. It trains them for international academic contests in subjects like mathematics, physics, and astronomy. In October 2026, a five-member Iranian team won five gold medals at an astronomy contest in Vietnam. It was their third team title in a row.

Participation in these contests is growing fast. About 121,000 students joined the national rounds in the year ending March 2026. That was a 40 percent jump from the year before. The Young Scholars Club manages the program, often drawing students from selective schools known as Tizhooshan.

Winning brings major personal rewards. Gold medalists can skip the difficult national university entrance exam, which is called the Konkoor. This rule gives top students an easy path into the country's most famous technical colleges.

Most medalists end up at a very small number of schools. One study looked at 75 math medalists. It found that 71 went to Sharif University of Technology, and the other four went to the University of Tehran. Both schools lead Iran's scientific research.

These universities do civilian work, but they also connect to state defense and energy projects. Sharif faces foreign sanctions over ties to missile and nuclear programs. The University of Tehran has done research on drones, space, and nuclear topics. The skills taught to contest winners are also useful for fields like artificial intelligence and aerospace.

Iran needs domestic talent because foreign sanctions make it hard to import technology, tools, or research funding. Yet many of the best students do not stay. Around 60 percent of 82 math medalists tracked in one study were living in other countries.

The pull to leave is strong because medalists easily qualify for elite foreign graduate programs. The late Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian math medalist who studied at Sharif. She moved to the United States, became a professor at Stanford, and won the prestigious Fields Medal.

Students face harsh problems if they stay in Iran. These include high inflation, falling currency value, low pay, and poor laboratory gear. Sanctions also cut researchers off from global partnerships. While some argue over the exact number of people leaving, the brain drain is widely acknowledged.

This creates an expensive problem for Iran. The state spends public money to find and teach brilliant teenagers. When those students move away as adults, foreign firms and universities gain workers whose early training was paid for by Iranian institutions.