This year over one million candidates are competing for seats in state-run universities nationwide.
In Iran, admission to public universities is based only on the results of the highly competitive, nationwide examination called Konkoor.
Students in the three main groups of mathematical sciences, experimental sciences, and human sciences and two other groups of arts and foreign languages compete to get the best result possible as their future is mostly determined by how they perform in the exam.
The competition is intense and the exam content rigorous as the in-take of tuition-free public universities are limited, although some opt for Azad university which charges students tuition fees.
Considering the number of universities in Iran there are places available for almost everyone who wants to study at a university, compared to previous decades. Currently the competition is for securing places at prestigious top universities.
