Headquartered in Tehran, Iran, the Islamic Azad University is the world's sixth-largest university. It was approved and ratified by Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in 1982, having been founded and established by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.[5] It has an enrollment of 1.3 million students.[6][7] Since its inception in 1982, it has grown both physically and academically to become one of the largest higher education institutions globally.