In recent years, Iran’s economy has been engulfed in profound challenges due to misguided and inefficient policies. This difficult situation has jeopardized the livelihoods of a significant number of academic faculty members, placing them under financial strain. In the absence of adequate oversight by universities, some faculty members have resorted to supervising dozens of PhD students simultaneously, hoping the additional income would help compensate for their inadequate salaries. However, the training of such a large surplus of doctoral graduates has resulted in tens of thousands of unemployed PhD holders.
This economic predicament has been especially challenging for young assistant professors, many of whom have been forced to take on unrelated side jobs to make ends meet. A striking illustration of this hardship is that a majority must allocate at least half of their salary just to rent an ordinary apartment in major metropolitan areas. Moreover, since many of these early-career academics are married, the financial strain has adversely affected the stability and tranquility of their family lives.
This phenomenon poses severe and potentially irreversible damage to the scientific and technological infrastructure of countries like Iran, including:
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Decline in the Quality of Education and Research: When faculty members must divert time and intellectual energy away from teaching and research to a second job, the quality of their primary mission—educating skilled professionals and advancing knowledge—is inevitably compromised. A sense of despair about the future further hinders their ability to relate to younger generations and address evolving educational needs.
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Erosion of Social Dignity and Prestige: University professors have traditionally been regarded as symbols of knowledge, research, and innovation. However, engagement in completely unrelated jobs—such as driving for ride-hailing services like Snapp or working as real estate intermediaries—undermines public trust and diminishes the perceived status of the profession.
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Burnout and Diminished Motivation: The psychological and physical toll of holding two misaligned jobs quickly leads to burnout, loss of motivation, and reduced academic productivity.
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Brain Drain: Talented and elite faculty members are increasingly leaving universities altogether, moving either to the private sector or abroad. Others lose the drive to pursue original, innovative work. It has been reported, for instance, that each week at least one faculty member departs from Sharif University of Technology—Iran’s top-ranked technical university—most often to emigrate.
The following measures could offer partial solutions to this crisis in the developing countries:
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Comprehensive Reform of the Salary System: The government and relevant authorities should allocate sufficient budgetary resources to restructure academic salary scales, ensuring they reflect both expertise and cost of living.
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Diversifying University Revenue Streams: Universities should increase non-tuition income by expanding research contracts with industry and society, delivering specialized services, and implementing entrepreneurial initiatives. A greater share of these revenues should be directed toward improving faculty members’ living conditions.
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Support for Relevant Consulting and Research Activities: Instead of resorting to unrelated side jobs, platforms should be established that allow faculty to offer specialized consulting services to industry and society, lead applied research projects, and contribute to technology development and commercialization. Such initiatives would enable them to generate supplementary income while creating social and economic value.
Ultimately, resolving this crisis requires policymakers to genuinely recognize the role of science and technology in sustainable development and to adopt a strategic outlook on higher education. If faculty members—who bear the core responsibility of educating the nation’s future experts—are regarded as fundamental national assets, investing in their welfare should not be viewed as an expense, but rather as an indispensable necessity. Ensuring their professional satisfaction is vital to achieving scientific progress and sustainable development at both national and international levels.