The Tehran University dean says the admission of Hashd al-Shaabi forces at Iranian universities is “academic cooperation with our friends”.

It comes as members of Iraq's Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militias and other proxies of the Islamic Republic have been given permission to study at Iranian universities.

Mohammad Moqimi on Monday called the reports about the use of Hashd al-Shaabi forces to repress the university protests "simplistic", students fearing the forces were being inserted to crack down on dissent as universities continue to be a hotbed of anti revolutionary sentiment.

He said the militia students are "sincere and genuine people."

On Thursday, a group of students from Tehran and Amirkabir Universities expressed opposition to the news of the new student admissions.

In a statement, Tehran University student activists said they would not accept “military forces, whether in combat or school uniforms, within the university premises".

Vowing to resist their presence, they said that the university’s atmosphere is already poisoned due to the presence of professors affiliated with the regime and Basij militiamen masquerading as students.

They accused the authorities of sidelining students by suspending, removing, and suppressing them, while replacing them with borrowed forces from Iraq.

Al-Hashd al-Shaabi was established back in 2014, following a fatwa to fight ISIS, which controlled four governorates and reached the borders of the capital Baghdad at the time.

The Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization is composed of approximately 67 different armed factions, with around 128,000 fighters that are mostly Shia Muslim groups, but also include Sunni Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi groups.