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Imam Khomeini International University was founded in 1991 and like many of Iran's institutions, such as Tehran¡¯s main airport, the national space centre and countless hospitals it was named after the creator of the modern Islamic state.

It is based in Qazvim, a city 85 miles to the north west of Tehran famed for its traditions of calligraphy, and was part of the membership of the Silk Road Universities Network.

Bringing together "fundamental education and innovative research towards the challenges of modern times", it aspires to be "a world-class university in the Middle East committed to the complete and sustainable development of research and teaching".

There are approximately 8,400 students at the university, with the largest numbers in technology and engineering (2,100), social sciences (1,692) and basic science (1,503). The other faculties are Islamic science and research, literature and humanities, agriculture and natural resources and architecture and urbanism.

There is a strong interdisciplinary focus, with the development of new majors such as power plant building and complexes. The faculty of architecture and urbanism offered some of the university' earliest MSc courses and hosts regular national conferences on its subject areas.

The university also lives up to the "international" element in its title. It has concluded 20 Memoranda of Understanding since 2014, the earliest with the universities of Xian in China and Indus in Pakistan.

The Persian Language centre offers "general" and "complementary" courses in the language for between 200 and 250 overseas students every year.

Six of the first 13 chancellors studied in the United States, and two in the UK.