TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution has ordered a suspension of contradictory decisions about the Islamic Azad University, the office of the university’s board of trustees announced on Monday.

In separate decrees to the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Azad University Board of Trustees director Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Supreme Leader ordered a freeze of decisions by SCCR and IAU.
Islamic Azad University had recently decided to endow its properties, a move endorsed by the Majlis.
However, the government had asserted that the public endowment of Islamic Azad University (IAU) violates the articles of association of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the country’s highest authority for making policy decisions regarding cultural, educational and research activities.
The dispute between the government and Azad University started when Ahmadinejad’s administration decided to take control over the university.
The Islamic Azad University, founded in 1982, is the country’s largest private chain of universities that consists of 357 branches and satellite campuses throughout the country and an enrollment of 1.4 million students.