TEHRAN –The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, also known as the National Taiwan University (NTU) Rankings, has placed 21 Iranian institutions among top 1,200 universities worldwide, compared to 18 universities in 2023.

University of Tehran won the best ranking among Iranian institutions, ranking 291 globally.  

University of Tehran ranked 30 in chemical engineering as well as energy science and engineering, 34 in mechanical engineering, and 73 in agriculture.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (with a global ranking of 359), Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences ( 491), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences(540), and Tarbiat Modares University (577) are placed second to fifth, respectively.

Tehran University of Medical Science’s best ranking globally was 22 in pharmacology and toxicology.

The performance measurements are composed of eight indicators. These indicators together represent three different criteria of research performance, which include research productivity, research impact, and research excellence.

The eight indicators include the number of articles in the last 11 years(2013-2023); the number of articles in 2023; the number of citations in the last 11 years(2013-2023); the number of citations in the last 2 years (2022-2023); average number of citations in the last 11 years (2013-2023); h-index of the last 2 years (2022-2023); number of Highly Cited Papers (2013-2023); number of articles in high-impact journals in 2022-2023.

NTU World University Rankings divided subjects into 6 fields, with them being Agriculture, Engineering, Life Science, Medicine, Nature Sciences, and Social Sciences respectively, and categorized them in regards to the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) research fields.

Moreover, Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology and Yasouj University are among the top 1200 institutions in the world based on full-time academic staff.

Recent rankings

The 2024-2025 edition of Best Global Universities rankings included 69 Iranian universities, up from 52 in 2023, among the world’s 2,250 top universities.

These institutions from 104  countries were ranked based on 13 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations which helps students to explore the higher education options that exist beyond their own countries' borders and to compare key aspects of schools' research missions.

University of Tehran (with a global ranking of 275), Islamic Azad University (374), Sharif University of Technology and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (516), University of Tabriz (521), and Amirkabir University of Technology (649) ranked first to fifth in the country, respectively.

Shanghai ranking 2024 placed nine Iranian universities among the top 1,000 institutions worldwide.

The 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.

Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world's top universities annually based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one.

This year, more than 2,500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1,000 universities in the world were published.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences and University of Tehran, which were among the top 500 universities in the world with a rank of 401–500, were placed top in the country.

Tarbiat Modares University (601–700) was placed second.

Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti of Medical Sciences, and Sharif University of Technology with a ranking of 701-800, shared the third rank in the country.

Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, and University of Tabriz (901 –1000) were ranked joint fourth.

According to data released by Web of Science (WoS), Iran’s ranking in Quantum Science and Technology publications improved from 23 in 2014 to 16 in 2023, placing the country top among Islamic nations in all quantum technology fields.

Iran's best global ranking was in quantum remote sensing technology. The country was ranked eighth worldwide.

The country’s other global ranking included photonic network technologies, 17; superconducting circuits, 18; spin qubit, 16; neutral (cold) atoms, 21; Trapped ions, 19; quantum key distribution, 24; quantum repeater, 26; quantum clock, 12; quantum imaging, 14; and quantum radar, 15.

The Times Higher Education (THE)  included 33 universities from Iran among the top 1,500 universities pursuing sustainable development goals (SDG) compared to 27 universities in 2023.

THE evaluated 2,152 universities from 125 countries to produce the overall Impact Ranking for 2024.

A total of 29 Iranian universities were mentioned in the overall table including Alzahra University, Iran University of Medical Sciences, and Kerman University of Medical Sciences (ranking 401- 600); Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, and University of Tehran (ranking 601 -800); Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Sharif University of Technology, University of Kurdistan, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ranking 801-1000), Mehr news agency reported.

Amirkabir University of Technology and Sharif University of Technology achieved the highest ranking in industry innovation and infrastructure, placing 27th.

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

This year's ranking featured 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) were ranked first to fifth, respectively.

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

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

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

SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2024  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)  were among the top 10 institutions in West Asia. They ranked 6th and 11th, respectively, in the 2023 ranking.

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

MT/MG