Iranian students aspiring to pursue higher education overseas are confronting a significant new barrier after the suspension of TOEFL and GRE examinations within the country. The halt stems from revised US sanctions regulations that have severed access to previously permitted educational services.
The sudden disruption has upended the academic timelines of numerous applicants who had spent months preparing for these mandatory exams. “My entire plan was built around taking this exam,” one TOEFL candidate in Tehran expressed to DW, highlighting the extensive effort invested in PhD applications, professor outreach, and document gathering despite prevailing internet outages.
ETS, the US-based entity responsible for administering both tests, confirmed the suspension in an official notice. This decision followed the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) freezing General License G, which had previously allowed certain educational transactions to continue. ETS stated that while Iranian nationals remain eligible to sit for the exams abroad, the organization is currently exploring avenues to reinstate testing domestically.
The timing coincides with an escalation of US sanctions on Iranian trade and exports following the onset of the Iran war in late February, further straining the Iranian economy. Prior to this development, IELTS testing had already faced severe constraints due to difficulties in transferring funds caused by sanctions, prompting some applicants to travel to Turkey and Armenia for the British-equivalent exam.
Financial implications are a major concern for prospective students. Alireza, who is applying to a university in Italy, explained that TOEFL had served as a backup after IELTS became unavailable. He noted that traveling to neighboring countries for testing is prohibitively expensive given Iran’s current economic climate. Other candidates echoed these sentiments, citing the added costs of travel and accommodation on top of exam fees as a critical obstacle for those relying on scholarships.
In response, Iranian candidates have initiated an online petition urging ETS and OFAC to restore access. The petition argues that sanctions targeting the Iranian government should not impede the educational opportunities of ordinary citizens. Organizers are calling for specific exemptions for standardized academic testing, though many applicants express skepticism about the petition’s immediate impact.
For students like Bahar, who is applying for PhD programs, the shift toward European and Australian universities was already a strategic pivot due to increasingly difficult US visa processes. With TOEFL and GRE now suspended domestically, she observed that there is little functional difference between the tests, as both now require travel abroad. Missing these deadlines risks delaying academic plans by a year or more, with ETS providing no timeline for when testing might resume.
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