Payame Noor University


Payame Noor University is a public multi-campus university and one of the largest universities in Iran, and a mega university in world, with its headquarters in Tehran, 31 provincial centers, 500 local study centers, other campuses around the country, and an International Study Center located in the headquarters in Tehran. Established in 1988, is a legal body under the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.
The university has held the record of publishing articles per student in Iran since 2013. The university is famous for its strict and rigorous semester exams and the university's system that forces students to read and self-learn which often results in higher skills, but lower grades compared to other universities. For non-practical courses, the tutors and professors are mostly for troubleshooting purposes.
PNU took its first intake in five study fields at 28 local study centers. Presently, the university has 4,000 academic members and 800,000 national and international students.
Payame Noor means "The Message of Light" in Persian.

History

is one of the largest public universities in Iran and a mega university in the world, whose name means "The message of Light" in Persian. It was established by decisions based on the meetings in 1986 by SCCR. It accepted the first group of students in Mehr 1367 in five branches and in the remaining 28 centers of the University of Abu Rayhan and Iran Free University.

Courses

Undergraduate course

Bachelor's degree programs
Business
Agriculture
Social Culture
Engineering
Master's Degree programs
Ph.D Degree programs
Physics

International students

International student information

In 1990, the Faculty of Overseas of PNU was established for the study of Persian Language and Literature at Bachelor, Master and Ph.D levels. The aims of these programs is to give foreign students an understanding of Iranian culture and art.
In the new organization of the university, the Faculty of Overseas is replaced by the International Study Center. This implies that the Center is authorized to offer all the degree programs of PNU. These programs are correspondence courses, which heavily rely on textbooks. The language of instruction is Persian. The center has 1182 students admitted through Degree programs in 55 countries.

Admission

Since it is impossible for most international students to enroll and take part in the National University Entrance Exam, the International Study Center provides opportunities for students to continue their studies through degree programs at Bachelor, Master and Ph.D level.
International applicants are admitted at the university on the basis of their high school GPA or their exam results. The center also enrolls students on the basis of their secondary school or their bachelor's degree GPA at two levels of bachelor's and master's degrees subsequently. The final exams of students of the center are administered with the assistance of the Iranian consulates and embassies around the world. Having acquired necessary scores at the exams of the first semester, and having a high educational background at university or high school levels with high GPA, the encompassing students will become regular students.

Language courses for non-Persian

The following Persian basic language courses are launched for non-Iranian nationals worldwide:
LevelDuration
Basic Persian4 months
Advanced Persian4 months
Academic Persian4 months

Controversy

Iranian universities faced criticism in early 2007 about their treatment of Bahá'í students. Although religious identification has been removed from entrance exam papers, students are reportedly being expelled once their religion is discovered.
The controversy specifically focused on Payame Noor when an official university letter confirmed the expulsion as government policy. Over 30 Baha'i students have been expelled under the policy.
Additionally, in 2008, the university declared that Arabic will be the "second language" of the university, and that all its services will be offered in Arabic, concurrent with Persian..

Departments and faculty

Department and Faculty of Humanities