TEHRAN – The Times Higher Education (THE) has 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 are 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.

These leading universities are recognized for their overarching impact across several dimensions of sustainable development, making significant contributions to creating a sustainable and resilient future.

Their broad-based excellence underscores the importance of holistic approaches to global challenges and highlights the critical role of academia in driving sustainable change.

The methodology for the Overall Impact Rankings integrates scores across multiple SDGs to reflect overall performance and impact.

The SDGs indexes include no poverty; zero hunger; Good health and well-being; quality education; gender quality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice, and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

Amirkabir University of Technology and Sharif University of Technology achieved the highest ranking in industry innovation and infrastructure, where they are placed 27.

Australia’s Western Sydney University tops the list for the third consecutive year. The UK’s University of Manchester and Australia’s University of Tasmania follow in joint second place.

The top newcomer in 2024 is France’s Institut Agro at joint 21st.

India is the most-represented country in the overall table, with 96 institutions. 

Recent rankings

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.

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

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

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

The University of Tehran was 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; were placed third to fifth in the country respectively.

These institutions’ rankings in West Asia were as follows.

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

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

Tabriz University of Medical Sciences ranked 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.

MT/MG