TEHRAN - The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2022 listed 37 Iranian institutions among the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger, up by eleven compared to 2021.

The ranking is based on the same 13 performance indicators as the flagship THE World University Rankings, but the weightings have been adjusted to give less weight to reputation.

The universities are judged across all their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook – to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available.

The 2022 ranking includes 539 universities, up from 475 in 2021. 

A further 251 institutions are listed with “reporter” status, meaning that they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank.

Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences tops the Iranian universities, ranking 67th with 2,958 full-time equivalency students, 10.6 students per staff, 3 percent international students, and 51:49 female to male students ratio.

In 2019, 13 Iranian universities were included in this ranking among 351 universities, in 2020, the number of universities increased to 20.

Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris is the world’s best young university for the first time this year, with last year’s frontrunner Nanyang Technological University, Singapore dropping to second.

Hong Kong has three institutions in the top 10, more than any other territory, while France is the most represented country in the top 20, with five institutions in this group.

Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands is the highest new entry in the ranking, in fourth place.

India and Turkey overtake the UK to become the most represented countries overall, with 40 institutions each. The UK shares third place with Iran (both have 37 universities).

Academic quality

Most recently, the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities 2022 has ranked 694 Iranian institutions among 30,000 top universities across the world.

Also, 59 Iranian universities have been listed among the top 3,000 institutions in the world in terms of academic quality, according to the 2021-2022 report released by University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP).

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Graduate Employability Rankings 2022 list has been released, which included three Iranian universities out of a total of 550 institutes worldwide that highlighted graduate employment processes.

Moreover, 34 Iranian universities and institutions were listed among the top 1,000 in the world, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2021.

A total of 58 universities from Iran have been listed in the Islamic World University Rankings 2021 announced by the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC).

ISC is the third internationally accredited citation center established in Iran based on a resolution adopted in 2008 by the 4th Meeting of the Islamic Ministers of Higher Education (ICMHESR) in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to index, evaluate and publish scientific productions in Islamic countries.

In “ISC world university rankings by subject” includes 4 major criteria of Education, Research, International Activity, and Innovation.

MG