TEHRAN –The number of top Iranian universities and research institutes in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database has increased from 115 last year to 134 this year, ranking the country 14th worldwide, and second among Islamic countries, the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) has reported.

Essential Science Indicators, or ESI, is a fundamental analysis and evaluation tool that reveals emerging science trends, as well as the performance of influential individuals, academic institutions, papers, journals, countries, and regions in various fields of scientific research.

A total of 9,019 universities and research institutes in all subject areas are ranked by the ESI database in a ten-year period, from 2014 to 2024.

Iran's top universities and research institutes are present in 19 subject areas, and the largest number is in the clinical medicine subject area with 74 universities and research institutes.
The number of institutions in the subject areas of engineering was 67, chemistry 57, agricultural sciences 29, materials sciences 28, pharmacology and toxicology 27, social sciences, general sciences 21.

Also, the number of institutions in the fields of plant and animal sciences, and environment/ecology 20 each, neuroscience and behavior 18, biology and biochemistry 17, computer science 15, immunology 10, geology 8, molecular biology and genetics and physics 5 each, microbiology and psychiatry and psychology 3 each and mathematics one.

The ranking includes 35 Islamic countries. Turkey ranks first among Islamic nations, followed by Iran in second place.

Also, Turkey with 149 universities and research institutes ranks 12th in the world.

Egypt (with 48 universities and research institutes) ranks 25th, Pakistan (with 46 universities) ranks 27th, and Saudi Arabia (with 45 universities) ranks 38th, respectively.

Recent rankings

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, where they are placed 27.

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.

MT/MG