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Islamic Azad University was established with the supposed promise of widening access to higher education across Iranian society. Today, however, that founding mission is unsurprisingly in tatters. Rampant tuition inflation — especially in medical fields — has transformed the university into what students call a “money-making machine,” prioritizing revenue over learning and turning higher education into an exclusive privilege for the wealthy. This is yet another manifestation of the regime’s corruption, using public welfare and service projects as a cover to plunder the wealth of the Iranian people.
According to state-affiliated reports, and following recent decisions by the university’s central board of trustees, annual tuition for medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy for the 2025–2026 academic year has been set between 200 and 218 million tomans. In Iran’s current economic climate, these figures have provoked widespread alarm and protest among students and families. The result is clear: whole segments of society are being shut out of critical professional fields, and higher education risks becoming a luxury rather than a public good.
Students shoulder the burden alone
A central grievance is the absence of meaningful student support systems. Unlike many higher-education systems worldwide — including private institutions that still provide scholarships, loans, and flexible payment plans — students at Islamic Azad face relentless annual increases with no viable financial aid. One student summed up the anger: “This is no longer a university; it’s a market selling degrees at the price of people’s blood.” The psychological and economic strain on families is severe and growing.
Escalating Tuition at Islamic Azad University Sparks #Student Outrage Amid Regime’s Economic Failureshttps://t.co/FbJlbbPS7g
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 31, 2025
The tuition hike deepens class-based exclusion
When the cost of a single degree equals several years’ income for an average household, access becomes a function of wealth rather than merit. This dynamic threatens to entrench privilege within critical professions such as medicine and dentistry, skewing the future composition of Iran’s professional class and undermining social mobility and justice in education.
Islamic Azad sits on substantial assets — land, construction projects, even industrial holdings — yet the university appears to favor an immediate revenue route: charging students. Rather than leveraging existing assets to fund scholarships or income-generating projects that could subsidize tuition, administrators have chosen to make students the primary funding source. The effect damages the university’s scholarly reputation and reduces its role to that of a diploma vendor.
Pezeshkian’s confession: Iran’s economy in freefall, society on the brink of eruption https://t.co/HVrpJgh818
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 11, 2025
Wider consequences for society and the education system
The continuation of this policy will have broad social impacts: reduced access to higher education, increased educational emigration, and growing public distrust in academic institutions. As doors to professional careers close for ordinary Iranians, the social and political costs will escalate.
Real reform in education, and the restoration of equal access, requires replacing the corrupt system that has turned universities into profit machines at the expense of the nation’s youth. Until then, students and families will continue to bear the crushing weight of policies that prioritize revenue over education.