TEHRAN – Thirty-six Iranian universities have been listed among more than 1,000 major universities worldwide, according to the Center for Science and Technology Studies Leiden Ranking for 2021.

The ranking is prepared based on the indicators of scientific impact and collaboration.

The rankings are compiled by the CWTS (Dutch: Centrum voor Wetenschap en Technologische Studies, CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

The CWTS Leiden Ranking offers a sophisticated set of bibliometric indicators that provide statistics at the level of universities on scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity. It stands for a multidimensional perspective on university performance.

The number of Iranian universities in the Leiden ranking has increased every year until 2020, but in 2021 it remains unchanged compared to the previous year, Mohammad Javad Dehghani, head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), said.

With the presence of 36 universities in this ranking system, Iran, as in previous years, ranks first among Islamic countries in terms of the number of top universities, he stated, adding, Turkey and Egypt are ranked second and third with 32 and 8 universities, respectively.

Overall, in the Leiden 2021 ranking, most of the country's universities have improved ranks compared to 2020, he highlighted.

He went on to note that Tehran University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Amirkabir University of Technology, Sharif University of Technology, Iran Science and Technology, Isfahan University of Technology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti, Tabriz Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad Tehran Science and Research Branch, Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Mashhad Medical Sciences, Shiraz Medical Sciences, Iran Medical Sciences, Shahid Bahonar, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Sahand University of Technology, were listed in the ranking.

In terms of scientific impact, almost all universities have performed better in terms of rankings compared to last year, and the University of Tehran, which is the first university in the country, has risen from 140 in 2020 to 134 in 2021, Dehghani emphasized.

In terms of collaboration, in general, there is no significant improvement in the ranking of the country's universities. However, the best ranking of the country has increased from 201 to 198 by the University of Tehran.

In terms of open access publishing, the ranking of the country's universities has not changed much, the best ranking in the country has been obtained by the University of Tehran, which has been upgraded from 201 in 2020 to 198 in 2021.

In gender diversity, universities of Tehran, Tarbiat Modares, Tehran Medical Sciences, Mashhad Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences, Iran Medical Sciences, Shiraz Medical Sciences, Tabriz University, and Gilan University have been upgraded compared to 2020.

Iranian universities performance in 2021

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

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

Times Higher Education also 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.

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.

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