TEHRAN- Ten universities from Iran are among the top 1000 universities in the world in Shanghai ranking, 2023, according to the head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC).

The University of Tehran is among the top 500 universities in the world with a rank of 401-500, the best among Iranian universities, the ISC head Ahmad Fazelzadeh said, IRIB reported.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (501-600), and Amirkabir University of Technology (601-700) were ranked second and third, respectively, he added.

There are 11 Islamic countries in the 2023 Shanghai World Ranking. Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan have the highest number of universities with 12, 10, 8, 7, and 6 universities respectively.

The 2022 edition of the ARWU put 11 universities from Iran in the top 1000 universities.

The Academic Ranking of the World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, was first published in June 2003 by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

ARWU is published in two general areas, broad subject fields, and specific subjects. The ranking includes Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and per capita performance of a university. 

This year, more than 2500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1000 universities in the world are published.

According to the 2023 edition of ARWU, Harvard University tops the ranking list followed by Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Iranian universities gradually advance

Multiple organizations annually rank universities around the world based on different criteria.

A look at Iran’s universities in these systems over the past decade shows that these universities have had an upward movement, standing above other Islamic countries, evidently.

Achieving better ranks in different ranking systems not only helps universities increase their reputation but also helps them attract better students and faculty and as a result, improve the quality of education.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings of Universities, The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, The Shanghai Ranking, and Leiden Ranking are among the most important systems publishing rankings for universities.

Each system takes into account specific metrics including scientific impact, international faculty members, elite students, number of professors and students winning Scientific awards, graduate employment, scientific inventions, and validity of the published articles in specific time intervals.

In the 2023 edition of the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings which includes 605 universities, Iran became the third more represented nation with 39 institutions.

The ranking is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfers, industrial income, and international outlook.

The latest edition of the QS World University Rankings (2024) has placed seven Iranian universities among the world’s top institutes.

The ranking features 1,497 institutions worldwide based on the three indicators of Sustainability, Employment Outcomes, and International Research Network.

The Leiden ranking system published the 2023 report, according to which 46 Iranian universities were among the 1,411 top universities in the world. Among Islamic countries, Iran ranked first, followed by Turkey and Egypt with 36 and 13 universities, respectively.

In the 2023 edition of the Times Higher Education’s Asian University Ranking System, 669 institutions from 31 Asian countries are included and 65 Iranian universities are among the top Asian institutions.

According to the latest bi-monthly edition of the ESI database, the number of the world's top universities and research institutes in all subject areas is 8,557, of which 115 universities and research institutes from the Islamic Republic of Iran are on this list.

The number of top Iranian universities and research institutes has increased from 112 last year to 115 this year.

MT/MG