TEHRAN – Some 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.

Starting from 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world's top universities annually based on a set of objective indicators and third-party data. ARWU has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy league table.

The Shanghai ranks the universities in 54 scientific fields (eight fields in natural sciences, four fields in life sciences, 22 fields in engineering, six fields in medical sciences, and 14 fields in social sciences) based on 5 indicators (Number of publications in the first quarter of journals, normalized citation impact, global collaboration; co-authorship, quality publications; published in top journals and conferences, and institute awards).

Shanghai Ranking is a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation, which has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.

In its latest edition in 2021, there are 34 Iranian institutions, which have been mentioned 163 times in the list of top institutions in different fields.

University of Tehran 21 times, Islamic Azad University 17 times, Tarbiat Modares University 13 times, Amirkabir and Sharif University of Technology 12 times, and the Isfahan University of Technology 10 times were listed in 54 scientific fields.

In total, Iranian institutes have been able to gain a global position in 32 scientific fields.

The Shanghai rankings 2020 show the top 1,000 universities in the world, with Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology first to second, respectively.

Performance in 2021

Most recently, 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 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.

FB/MG