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Semnan University was established in 1975 as Semnan Higher Education Centre with around 500 students. It went though the usual Iranian progression of becoming a Higher Education complex when it diversified with the creation of electronic and civil engineering programmes in 1989 before attaining university status in 1994.

It serves a provincial capital city in the semi-arid north of Iran 150 miles east of Tehran, located on the former Silk Road and with distinctive local traditions such as a high number of female-led bakeries. The province is home to the main launch site of the Iran Space Agency.

The university has approximately 15,000 students and is located on an 850-hectare site in the north-east of the city.

There are five campuses ¨C engineering, basic science, art, humanities and the most recent, science and technology. It has been a long drawn-out project to create an auditorium and library on the science and technology campus and has attracted considerable publicity in the international architecture press. It is a dramatic piece of modern design from a high-profile Tehran architects firm and is intended to be a focus and "social hub" for the whole site, as well as housing close to 200,000 books and journals.

Water shortages are a perennial regional issue, with a recent transfer of water from the Caspian Sea causing considerable controversy. Notable recent findings include the university's nanotechnologists devising a photocatalyst to enhance water purification. Research centres on campus focus on new technology, civil engineering and advanced materials, including work on the properties and potential of salt, plaster and crystal.