SAJAD Portal and Iranian Degree Verification for Australian Visa: MSRT, Laghve Ta'ahod, and AQF Equivalency

Before Engineers Australia will assess your CDR, before ACS will evaluate your ICT credentials, and before VETASSESS will process your skills assessment, one thing needs to happen: your Iranian university degree needs to be verified through MSRT's SAJAD system. This step trips up more applicants than any other because it involves a bureaucratic constraint that no Australian assessing authority will tell you about — and because the Free Education Obligation can lock your transcripts without warning.

What SAJAD Is and Why It Matters

SAJAD (سامانه جامع آموزش عالی) is the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology's integrated higher education database. When you graduated from an Iranian university, your records were (or should have been) registered in this system. The MSRT has digitized degree verification through SAJAD, and the verification code it generates is what international credential evaluators use to authenticate that your degree is genuine and your university is accredited.

For Australian purposes, the primary users of your SAJAD verification are:

• Engineers Australia (EA), which will cross-reference your credentials against the database when assessing your CDR
• The Australian Computer Society (ACS), which checks ICT qualifications
• VETASSESS, which handles a wide range of professional occupations
• WES (World Education Services), which some applicants use as a preliminary credential evaluation before their formal assessment

Without SAJAD verification, the assessment process either stalls or proceeds with additional document requirements that slow everything down. Start this before you start writing your CDR — not in parallel with it.

The Free Education Obligation: The Transcript Lock

The Free Education Obligation (Laghve Ta'ahod — لغو تعهد) is a legal obligation placed on graduates of state-funded Iranian universities. If the government subsidized your education, you are expected to work in Iran for a defined period — typically three years — or pay a fee to the Ministry of Science to release this obligation.

Here is the practical problem: if your obligation has not been resolved, the MSRT will not release your official transcripts or degree certificate for use in international credential evaluation. The SAJAD verification code may be inaccessible, and your university may decline to issue official sealed transcripts.

This catches people by surprise. You may have graduated years ago, been working in Iran or abroad, and never been informed that an administrative obligation was outstanding. The system does not notify you.

How to check and resolve it:

1. Log into the SAJAD portal (sajad.msrt.ir) with your national code (Kode Melli) and mobile number
2. Check for any outstanding obligations or holds on your academic records
3. If the Laghve Ta'ahod is outstanding, contact your awarding university's alumni office or the MSRT directly to determine the current fee for administrative resolution
4. Pay the fee, obtain written confirmation, and then return to SAJAD to verify your records are now accessible

The fee varies by university and year of graduation. For more recent graduates from state universities, it can run into tens of millions of Iranian Rial. For those with established careers abroad, the calculation of the obligation and the payment mechanism has become more complex — especially under sanctions. Iranian exchange services can facilitate the payment from abroad.

AQF Mapping: What Your Iranian Degree Is Actually Worth

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is the national system for Australian qualifications. Iranian degrees must be mapped to this framework before points can be allocated on the Points Test. Here is the standard mapping:

*Master's degree equivalency depends on whether the ACS or EA assesses it as equivalent to an Australian Master's or PhD. A Master's alone is 15 points unless the assessing authority maps it higher.

The Non-Continuous Bachelor (Karshenasi Na-Peivasteh) is a common structure where you complete a two-year Kardani first and then a two-year top-up Bachelor's. The total credit unit count of both programs combined — typically 130–140 units — is what ACS and EA verify to confirm Bachelor equivalency. If your combined transcript is not immediately clear on total units, your university's registrar can issue a supplementary letter confirming the full degree structure.

Section 1 vs. Section 2 Universities: The Classification That Affects Your Assessment

Australian assessing authorities and DFAT use Country Education Profiles (CEPs) to benchmark overseas qualifications. For Iran, this results in a practical division of universities into quality tiers:

Section 1 universities — generally the top-tier state institutions — are assessed as equivalent to Australian Bachelor's degrees in the same field. Institutions consistently assessed in this category include Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), the University of Tehran, Isfahan University of Technology, Shiraz University, and Ferdowsi University. Graduates from these institutions start from a stronger credential baseline in their assessment.

Section 2 institutions — including many Islamic Azad University branches and smaller provincial universities — may be assessed as equivalent only to an AQF Advanced Diploma or Associate Degree, depending on the specific branch, the year of graduation, and the field of study. MSRT accreditation of the specific IAU campus matters here — not all IAU branches are accredited at the same level.

If your institution is from the IAU network, check the specific campus accreditation status with MSRT and confirm with your assessing authority before lodging. ACS, for example, applies its own internal assessment of IAU branches based on research output records and curriculum content.

VETASSESS and MSRT Verification for Non-Engineering Occupations

For non-engineering, non-ICT professionals using VETASSESS — marketing specialists, accountants, auditors, healthcare administrators — the MSRT recognition of your degree-granting institution is the primary qualification check. VETASSESS requires that:

1. Your degree is from an MSRT-recognized institution
2. The specific campus or faculty was operational and accredited at the time you graduated
3. Your field of study is substantially relevant to your nominated occupation

For IAU graduates in VETASSESS-assessed occupations, VETASSESS makes individual determinations based on institutional accreditation records. Provide a copy of your MSRT institutional recognition certificate along with your transcripts if your campus is not a well-known major institution.

Starting SAJAD Verification: Practical Steps

Log into the SAJAD portal at sajad.msrt.ir. If you graduated before the digital system was implemented (roughly before 2010), your records may need to be manually entered by your university — contact the alumni office for this. Once your records are accessible, navigate to the credential verification section and initiate a verification request for international use. The system generates a time-limited verification code.

Provide this code to your assessing authority alongside your official transcripts and degree certificate. The code lets them verify electronically rather than waiting for document authentication through the postal system.

The total time from SAJAD initiation to having verified documents in hand with all Laghve Ta'ahod cleared: budget 2–4 months. This is why starting SAJAD before everything else is the correct sequencing.

The Iran → Australia Skilled Migration Guide walks through the complete SAJAD registration process, the Laghve Ta'ahod resolution steps, and the AQF mapping for common Iranian engineering and ICT degrees — along with what to do when your IAU campus creates complications during skills assessment.

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