Iran uses comprehensive standardized exams to sort university admissions (the population of the test takers vary between 100k and 600k), but pretty much anyone

Iran uses comprehensive standardized exams to sort university admissions (the population of the test takers vary between 100k and 600k), but pretty much anyone with a STEM high-school degree can get admitted to some university. The worst universities are for-profits (still pretty cheap though, except a few very good programs in state universities that admit a few people by money), and they basically give you a degree for giving them your money and showing up on classes. Since the universities get a more homogeneous level of talent, the standards they set is compatible with what most of their students can achieve, hence the high graduation rates. Another factor is that people take life more seriously in Iran (based on my very limited data on non-urban Iranians, and the US). There is virtually no social bubble that does not think degrees are important. “Engineer” is used as a general title of prestige, used as an umbrella term for anyone rich who is not a medical doctor.