The Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch (IAUN) (Persian: دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد نجفآباد), also known as the University of NajafabadorAzad University of Najafabad, is an independent comprehensive branch of the Islamic Azad Universitysystem, located in Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran.
IAUN was established in January, 1985 with the aim of training professionals needed for high scientific positions. This university boasts of 29 years of service educating 26,000 university students in 250 different majors in Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. programs. It has been able to train 73,793 graduates including 1,340 Ph.D. and 6,500 M.A. graduates. The total number of the full-time, part-time and adjunct professors in this university is above 1,500. With over twenty five years of service, this university is now one of the most prominent centers in Isfahan Province and one of the most distinguished ones in higher education in Iran, and with its precise and professional management in a 20-year strategic framework in different research, scientific, cultural and educational fields, it has gained a lot of domestic and foreign recognition, among which one can refer to gaining the Gold Medal of Quality Management in the Century based on the QC100 standard from the BID International Institute in Madrid, Spain in 2013 with 118 countries voting for it. This university was introduced as the first independent branch of the Islamic Azad University and appointed as an independent comprehensive university with the total score of 5951.68.[3] According to the Times University Rankings, the university ranked first among Azad universities in 2022. It was also ranked 501-600th in the university's global rankings.[4]
IAUN monthly newsletter, Talieh, in its first issue titling the university chancellor Dr. Mohammad Amiri's speech "IAU Najafabad Branch soon will be the second Sharif UniversityinIran".[18]
IAUN is pioneer in representing itself in social networking websites among other higher educational institutes in Iran since there has been restrictions from the government for such institutions not to have any presence in foreign social networking websites. However, IAUN is the first university in Iran having an official page in social networking websites. Starting from early January 2014, the university announced using Instagram as the first social networking website to have an official page on.[28]
