The population of Iran grew rapidly following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It is estimated at about 80 million people today, with roughly 60% aged 30 or younger. For many years, the government has struggled to keep up with demand for education. The situation, however, began to reverse itself over the past decade or so.
As the following chart reflects, university enrolment in Iran began a period of very rapid expansion from about 2001 on. A recent item from The Washington Post notes, “Growth in the private and fee-based public sectors of higher education has been nothing short of astonishing, fuelled by the unprecedented expansion of distance-learning and part-time universities from just over 383,000 available spots in 2005 to 1.1 million in 2011. For the first time in Iran’s modern history, anyone who is willing to pay can go to university.”
