The Islamic Azad University is a chain of universities with over 300 or so campuses around Iran, and 5 campuses overseas. The overseas campuses are in the United Kingdom (near the city of Oxford), UAE, Lebanon, Tanzania (on the island of Zanzibar), and Armenia.
The Islamic Azad University, with a total of over 300 campuses, is a unique institution, that can be considered one of the largest in the world.

The University has over 35,000 members of academic staff, and about 1.300.000 students. Degrees are offered in different levels from Associate to PhD, and a wide variety of subjects, covering almost every field from social sciences to medicine, and from basic sciences to theology, are being taught at this University.

Each one of the Islamic Azad University's campuses is a comprehensive university on its own right with many faculties, and offers various degrees up to PhD.

As an example, the centre for Science and Research, on its own right, is one of the largest university campuses, if not in the world, in the Middle East, in terms of area, and most  importantly, quality. This particular campus offers one of the most advanced research facilities, in physics, at the Plasma Physics research center. Other faculties, and departments in this campus, have similarly advanced research facilities, and have most experienced, internationally known, Iranian Western educated members of academic staff.

Many graduates of the Islamic Azad University, are pursuing their post-doctoral researches at various well-known western universities, in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and also other well-known institutions in other countries of the world.

Graduates of University occupy important positions and posts, both in Iran and abroad.  All this has happened in a period of less than 25 years. The Islamic Azad University is one of the products of the Islamic Revolution, which took place in Iran in 1978/9.

The University is a non-profit and non-governmental institution and was established in 1982, as a response to the high demand for higher education, after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The institution receives no financial aid from the government. It is financed entirely by the fees it receives from the students and is run by a board of trustees.

The Islamic Azad University is an active member of several international educational organizations, such as the International Association of University Presidents, the International Association of University, and the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World.

The University has agreements with many well-known and accredited universities in five continents, to exchange students, academic staff and joint degree programs. The joint degree programs are courses held jointly by the Islamic Azad University and other accredited foreign universities, in various parts of the world, which eventually leads to students of such programs receiving their degrees jointly by both the Islamic Azad University, and the foreign university where they did part of their studies. Such programs currently are at postgraduate levels ie. Masters and PhD.

The Islamic Azad University has a world-wide reputation in sports, apart from its academic participations in major international conferences, in various fields around the world. Many major prizes in science and technology, and sports have been won in major international competitions and conferences by the academic staff, students, and sports men and women of the Islamic Azad University.

This great, fast growing entity sets the example for the world as an academic institution. As a result of the Islamic Azad University, Iran has one of the highest rates of highly educated population in the world.

As a result of the magnitude of its size, the Islamic Azad University has had a major impact on mobilization of population in Iran. No private, single educational establishment in the world has been able to create such a movement of population in a country which is due to the fact that this institution has brought about various job opportunities around Iran, as result of which a major immigration within the country has evolved. Beside the number of the students, and the academic staff of the Islamic Azad University, which was referred to, earlier on, the administrative staff of the University, alone exceeds 35,000.

All this, put together, has changed the fabric of the Iranian as a whole to an astronomical degree. The Islamic Azad University is a great contribution to keep Iran moving with the developments which take place in the world.