TEHRAN – The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings has listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It uses calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach, and teaching.

The 2021 Impact Rankings is the third edition and the overall ranking includes 1,115 universities from 94 countries.

Iran University of Medical Sciences is ranked among the top 50 universities, with a ranking of 35, which is followed by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences.

Alzahra University, Amirkabir University of Technology, Kashan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Kordestan University of Medical Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and the University of Tabriz are the next seven universities with the highest rate of global impact.

The overall ranking is led by the University of Manchester for the first time. Three Australian institutions complete the top four, including the University of Sydney, RMIT University, and La Trobe University. 

Iranian universities hosting students from 133 countries, Afshin Akhoundzadeh, head of the office for non-Iranian students at the Organization of Student Affairs said on April 16.

Iranian universities shine at world rankings

Times Higher Education has published its annual ranking of the world’s top universities for 2021, listing 47 Iranian universities, which shows an increase of 7 universities compared to the last year.

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

With 47 Iranian universities ranked among 1,527 top universities of 93 countries in the world in 2021 rankings, Iran achieved a great improvement in the academic field.

Some 21 Islamic countries were also listed in the ranking. However, Iran holds the highest share with 47 universities.

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.

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.

In June 2020, 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.

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