Dive Brief:

• A U.S. federal agency has authorized academic exchanges between Iran and the United States.
• The authorization allows Iranians to be offered scholarships, take online courses, and take university entrance exams and professional certification exams.
• The move is apparently a concession offered by the U.S. in response to Iran’s participation in talks about the controversial Iranian nuclear program.

Dive Insight:

The authorization comes in the form of a “General License G” issued by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. It should allow Coursera, provider of massive open online courses, to reverse a decision it made in January to stop offering MOOCs to Iranians, citing sanctions. Financial snags still remain for academic exchanges, however. For example, it isn’t clear how Iranians will pay for courses and how U.S. citizens attending an Iranian university will transfer money there, LobeLog.com reports.