TEHRAN –The 21st edition of the QS World University Rankings (2025) has placed nine Iranian universities among the world’s top institutes, compared with seven universities in 2024.

This year's ranking features over 1,500 institutions across 105 higher education systems.

Sharif University of Technology (with a rank of 342), University of Tehran (368), Amirkabir University of Technology (403), Iran University of Science and Technology (436), and Isfahan University of Technology (489) are ranked first to fifth, respectively.

Tabriz University (552), Shiraz University (691-700), Shahid Beheshti University (851-900), and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (951- 1000) are other top Iranian universities included in the ranking.

The results draw on the analysis of 17.5 million academic papers and the expert opinions of over 240,000 academic faculty and employers.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology celebrates thirteen years at the top, while Imperial College London has climbed to second place.

Since the 2024 edition, three new indicators including sustainability, employment outcome, and international research network into the QS World University Ranking.

The QS World University Rankings is an annual ranking of universities published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British international education market consultancy.

The data on research and citations looks at a five-year period for research papers and a six-year period for citations.

The QS World University Rankings 2025 is based on 6 key ranking indicators including Academic reputation (30 percent); Employer Reputation (15 percent); Faculty-Student Ratio (10 percent); Citations Per Faculty Ratio (20 percent); International Faculty Ratio (5 percent); International Student Ratio (5 percent); International Research Network Index (5 percent); Employment Outcomes (5 percent); and Sustainability (5 percent).

A total of 29 Islamic countries with 270 universities are included in this ranking.

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey rank first to third respectively in terms of the number of universities. Iran ranks 11th among Islamic nations in this year's QS ranking.

Recent ranking

SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2024 has placed 197 Iranian universities among the top institutions in the world compared to 194 universities in 2023.

The SIR is a classification of academic and research-related institutions ranked by a composite indicator that combines three different sets of indicators based on research performance, innovation outputs, and societal impact measured by their web visibility.

In the latest ranking, Tehran University of  Medical Sciences  (5) and the University of Tehran (10)  are among the top 10 institutions in West Asia. They were ranked 6th and 11th, respectively, in the 2023 ranking.

The Research rankings of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the University of Tehran are 175 and 290, respectively, in the world.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences ranking has improved from 486, in 2023, to 452 in 2024 marking it the top university in Iran.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences holds first position in Medicine, 2nd in Dentistry, 5th in pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics in West Asia. It is also ranked 34th in Dentistry globally.

The University of Tehran is ranked 2nd in the country and 827th worldwide.

The University of Tehran is placed 1st in Business, Management, and Accounting (38th in the world), 3rd in Economics, Econometrics, and Finance, and 4th in Engineering in West Asia.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences; Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, and Tabriz University of Medical Sciences; are placed third to fifth in the country respectively.

These institutions’ rankings in West Asia are as follows.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences ranks 3rd in Medicine, and 6th in Dentistry.

Mashhad University of Medical Sciences ranks 4th in pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics.

Tabriz University of Medical Sciences ranks 2nd in pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics (47th worldwide), and 5th in Energy.

The 14th edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2024 included 17 Iranian universities in 17 subject entries, compared with 16 universities in 2023.

University of Tehran (346), Sharif University of Technology (401- 450) in Engineering and Technology; Tehran University of Medical Sciences (358), Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (451- 500), University of Tehran (451- 500), and Shiraz university of medical sciences (501 – 550) in Life sciences and Medicine; and University of Tehran (401-450), and Sharif University of Technology (501-550) in Natural Science are the top universities.

A total of 435 Iranian institutions were among 11,989 institutions ranked in Webometrics world ranking 2024.

Tehran University was the top among Iranian institutions. Its ranking had improved from 305 in 2023 to 285 in 2024, Mehr news agency reported.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (445), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (606), Sharif University of Technology (639), Amirkabir University of Technology (792), Iran Science and Technology (890), Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (920), Iran Medical Sciences University (940), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (940), and Shahid Beheshti University (967) ranked second to tenth, respectively, in the country.

According to this year’s ranking, 338 other institutions have been ranked between 4,000 to 31,000.

According to the results of the 2023-2024 edition of the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), 71 Iranian institutions were included in the ranking compared to 64 institutions in the 2022-2023 edition.

URAP World Ranking is based on six academic performance indicators including number of articles, citations, total document, scientific productivity, research impact, and international collaboration.

In the academic performance ranking of 71 universities in Iran, Tehran University was ranked first nationally with a global rank of 231, IRNA reported.

Tehran University of Medical Science (277), and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science (436) were ranked second and third, respectively.

In the 2023 edition of URAP, the University of Tehran was ranked first nationally with a global rank of 231.

Golestan University of Medical Science (1307), University of Hormozgan, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Ilam University, University of Science and Technology of Mazandaran are institutions that had recently been ranked among the best in the world in the 2023-2024 edition.

In December 2023, the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) released a report, ranking 115 governmental and 17 non-governmental universities according to six indices.

Education counts for 30 percent, Research counts for 25 percent, Technology and Innovation counts for 20 percent, International Outlook counts for 10 percent, and Social Services, Infrastructure, and Facilities counts for 5 percent, ISNA quoted the ISC head Ahmad Fazelzadeh as saying.

The universities of Tehran, Fardowsi of Mashhad, Tarbiat Modarres, Shahid Beheshti, and Shiraz were placed first to fifth in the ranking.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 has listed 36 Iranian universities among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, compared with 29 universities in 2023.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 include 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions.

The ranking is based on 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

Sharif University of Technology ranked first among Iranian universities with a rank in the range of 301-350.

Amirkabir University came next with a rank in the range of 351-400.

MT/MG