This study examines the underlying conditions, mechanisms, and consequences of political and social nihilism among students at Islamic Azad University. The central research question concerns how students’ lived experiences within a context characterized by economic instability, perceived injustice, institutional unresponsiveness, discrepancies between official discourse and everyday experience, and a persistent disconnection between effort and outcomes contribute to the erosion of meaning, trust, and agency. The study adopts a qualitative approach based on grounded theory methodology. Data were collected through 21 semi-structured interviews with students from the Science and Research Branch and the Alborz Branch of Islamic Azad University and were analyzed using MAXQDA software through three stages of open, axial, and selective coding.The findings indicate that student nihilism in the studied context does not primarily manifest as a complete rejection of values or absolute indifference; rather, it takes the form of “defensive nihilism.” In this condition, students seek to protect themselves against instability, institutional unresponsiveness, economic pressure, and repeated experiences of ineffective action by lowering their expectations, withdrawing from social engagement, adopting defensive silence, engaging in mental disengagement or imagined migration, minimizing participation, and retreating into small-scale and personally accessible sources of meaning. At the same time, family, close friendships, influential professors, meaningful work, learning, everyday ethical practices, and secure interpersonal relationships function as limited yet significant resources of resistance against the complete collapse of meaning.The article argues that political and social nihilism among university students should not be understood merely as an indication of generational irresponsibility or apathy.