TEHRAN – The Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC) published the results of the ISC World University Rankings 2019, according to which 35 Iranian universities were listed among the world’s top 2,000 in various subjects.

ISC is the third internationally accredited citation center established in the Islamic Republic of Iran based on a resolution adopted in 2008 by the 4th Meeting of the Islamic Ministers of Higher Education (ICMHESR) in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to index, evaluate and publish scientific productions in Islamic countries.

In the ISC global ranking, all subjects are divided into 6 main categories and 42 subcategories. The 6 main categories include natural sciences, engineering, and technology, medical and health sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

In the ISC Rankings by Subject, the target universities in each subject area are among the top 700 universities in the world in terms of the number of publications; in a three-year period, at least 150 degrees should be published in that subject area, which is registered in the incite database.

The universities announced in the ranking in each subject area will be announced on a global scale and also based on the continent, country, etc. The ranking is based on four general criteria of education, research, international activity, and innovation, which due to its importance, the research criterion is the most important.

In the 2019 ISC ranking, 35 universities of Iran have been ranked in various subjects.

Iranian top universities ranked among the top universities of the world in 6 out of 7 subcategories of natural sciences, including, mathematics, computer science and information, physical sciences and astronomy, chemical sciences, earth, and related environmental sciences, life sciences.

The University of Tehran (1401-450) and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (501-600) placed first and second among the Iranian universities in these subcategories, respectively.

Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley were the first top universities in the world in the field of natural sciences.

In the field of engineering and technology, there are 11 subcategories, and Iranian universities have participated in all 11 fields. In this field, the University of Tehran (200) ranked first among the country’s universities, Amirkabir University of Technology and Iran University of Technology came after.

In the field of medical and health sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (251-300) ranked first, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (401-450) second, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (451-500) jointly ranked third.

In the field of agricultural sciences, the University of Tehran (88) and Tarbiat Modares (238) were the first two universities from Iran in this ranking.

In social sciences and also humanities categories, only the University of Tehran achieved ranks.

Islamic countries in 2019 ISC ranking by subject

In this ranking, other Islamic countries also performed well.

In the field of natural sciences, there were 34 universities from Islamic countries, the largest number of which is related to Iran (with 11 universities). Malaysia with 6 universities and Turkey with 5 universities has the most presence in this subject area.

The best rank in this field belongs to Saudi Arabia placed 7.

In the field of engineering and technology, 55 universities from Islamic countries were present, the highest number also relates to Iran with 15 universities. Malaysia with 12 and Turkey with 7 universities came after Iran. Saudi Arabia ranked first.

In the field of medical sciences and health, there were 50 universities from Islamic countries, the largest number being in Turkey with 19 universities. Iran with 10 universities and Egypt with 7 universities have was ranked after Turkey. Moreover, the best rank in this field was obtained by Lebanon.

In the field of agricultural sciences, Islamic countries presented 65 universities, the largest number of which was in Turkey with 21 universities, and Iran with 13 and Pakistan with 8 universities were the countries with the highest share in this field. Also, the best rank belonged to Saudi Arabia.

In the social sciences category, there were 20 universities from Islamic countries, the largest number of which is related to Malaysia with 8 universities. Turkey with 7 and Indonesia with 2 universities got the highest number of participation. Saudi Arabia also got the best rank.

According to the Islamic World Science Citation Database, there were 7 universities from Islamic countries in the field of humanities, the largest share is related to Malaysia with 4 universities. Turkey with two universities and Iran with one university has also been listed in this subject area. And Malaysia also got the best rank.

Iranian universities appear in various rankings in the world

Most recently, forty-three Iranian universities were placed in the Islamic World University Rankings 2019 announced by the ISC.

With a scientific growth rate of 10.4 percent in 2019, Iran ranked second among the top 25 countries in the world, next to China with a growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to the Web of Science website.

In 2000, Iran's share of scientific productivity was about 0.1 percent, which reached about 2 percent with a 20-fold increase in both Scopus and WoS citation databases.

According to statistics released by the International Web of Science Database, Iran's citation rank has always been on the rise over the last eight years, from 24 in 2012 to 16 in 2019.

Iran ranks first in terms of the number of universities in the region and among Islamic countries, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2020.

Two Iranian universities have been ranked among the top 100 universities in Asia, according to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities for July 2020.

Moreover, 7 Iranian universities have been listed among the best 1000 worldwide; including, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, came in 539th, 656th, 826th, 908th, 915th, 916th places, respectively, according to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.

In June, THE Asia University Rankings 2020 ranked five Iranian universities among the top 100 universities worldwide.

The Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking has placed 36 Iranian universities in the list of over 1,000 major universities worldwide in 2020 compared with 26 universities in 2019.

Also, five Iranian universities have been placed among the world’s top 1,000 universities announced by the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021.

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