The investigation into the former administration’s practice of offering bursaries to ineligible students has uncovered 3, 731 cases of these irregularities so far. The head of the Parliament’s Education and Research Commission has announced that these students received bursaries without meeting the necessary GPA criteria, a practice that has called the entire system into serious question.

The Shargh daily reports that Javad Heravi stated that the practice has seriously damaged the academic integrity of higher-education institutions.

The probe into irregularities in the distribution of bursaries has been criticized by some MPs who earlier had called for the impeachment of Education Minister Reza Farajidana.

Preliminary investigations had revealed that 3,000 students received bursaries under the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad administration without meeting the academic criteria needed to receive them. The number has been steadily climbing with the extension of the investigation.

Radio Zamaneh