TEHRAN – The SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2026 has ranked 166 Iranian universities among the top institutions in the world, up from 164 in 2025.

The SIR is a classification of academic and research-related institutions ranked by a composite indicator that combines three sets of indicators: research performance, innovation outputs, and societal impact, measured by their web visibility.

The research ranking refers to the volume, impact, and quality of the institution’s research output.

The innovation ranking is calculated based on the number of patent applications of institutions and the citations that their research output receives from patents.

The societal ranking is based on the number of pages on the institution’s website and the number of backlinks and mentions from social networks.

SCI Ranking analyzes institutions in five sectors, including government, health, universities, companies, and non-profit.

For the SIR Ranking 2026 edition, the Altmetrics indicator has been replaced by the new Media Mentions metric. This indicator quantifies institutional exposure across high-authority media outlets indexed in the SCImago Media Rankings (SMR). 

A total of 61 universities in the SIR 2026 edition have been flagged for high rates of self-citation (over 25 percent) and self-referencing (over 15 percent). These factors can severely affect ranking positions and, as a result, these universities may be removed from the SIR in subsequent editions.

In the latest ranking, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and University of Tehran are placed among the top ten institutions in West Asia, ranking 5th and 10th, respectively. 

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (with a global ranking of 701) is the top university in the country. 

University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services are placed second and third, respectively.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences rank 37 in Dentistry (first in West Asia), 49 in Dermatology, 73 in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 81 in Otorhinolaryngology, 94 in Infectious Diseases, 96 in Public Health, Environment and Occupational Health, 98 in Urology, 108 in Ophthalmology, 131 in Medicine (first in West Asia), 139 in Epidemiology, 159 in Nephrology, 176 in Surgery, and 189 in Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine.

University of Tehran ranks 71 in Architecture, 72 in Business, management, and Accounting (first in West Asia), 76 in Geography, Planning, and Development, 112 in Energy (first in West Asia), 128 in Geology, 137 in Civil and Structural Engineering, 169 in Atmospheric Science, 208 in Religious Studies, 242 in Earth and Planetary Sciences, 248 in forestry, and 290 in Aquatic Science.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences ranks 96 in Pathology and Forensic Medicine, 106 in Urology, and 130 in Dermatology.

Tabriz University of Medical Sciences ranks 109 in Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics (2nd in West Asia), and 182 in Urology.

Golestan University ranks 132 in Social Sciences, and 155 in Education (first in West Asia).

In Environmental Sciences, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute ranks 1st in West Asia (130 globally), University of Tehran ranks third in West Asia.

In Architecture, University of Gilan ranks 70, and Iran University of Science and Technology ranks 80 globally.

University of Kashan ranks 66 globally in Ocean Engineering.

In Biomedical Engineering, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and Mashhad University of Medical Sciences rank 74, 245, and 261, respectively.

For the ranking purposes, the calculation is generated each year from the results obtained over a period of five years ending two years before the edition of the ranking. For instance, if the selected year of publication is 2024, the results used are those from the five-year period of 2018-2022. The only exception is the case of web indicators, which were calculated last year.

Recent rankings

The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2026 has placed 90 Iranian universities among the top Asian institutions, up from 85 universities in 2025.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook. 

Sharif University of Technology is placed first in the country, with a global ranking of 76, Borna news agency reported.

Amirkabir University of Technology (79) and Iran University of Science and Technology (87) are ranked second and third. 

Tehran University of Medical Science (111), University of Tehran (120), Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (131), Isfahan University of Technology (137), Tarbiat Modares University (162), Shiraz University of Technology (166), and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (154) are placed fourth to tenth in the country.

THE World University Rankings (WUR) 2026 placed 101 Iranian universities among the top universities in the world in 11 subject areas, compared to 81 universities in 10 subject areas in 2025.

These ten subject rankings include arts and humanities; business and economics; clinical and health; computer science; education; engineering; life sciences; physical sciences; psychology; social sciences; and Law.

To create the THE WUR 2026 list, THE’s data team drew on a comprehensive and growing database containing hundreds of thousands of data points on more than 3,100 global research universities, and employed a global Academic Reputation Survey of more than 108,000 leading scholars, who provided us with their expert views on the world’s leading universities.

In addition, it also analysed 174.9 million citations to 18.7 million academic publications (from Elsevier’s Scopus database) published over a five-year period between 2020 and 2024.

Amirkabir University of Technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, and Sharif University of Technology, ranking 351–400 globally,  were placed first in the country.

Iran University of Science and Technology, and University of Tehran were placed second, with a global ranking of 401–500.

Shiraz University of Technology, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences ranked 501–600 globally; they ranked third nationwide.

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings placed 48 Iranian universities in the list of top universities in 2026, compared to 32 universities in 2025.

Published annually since 2009, the QS Asia University Rankings highlights the top universities in Asia each year.

University of Tehran (with a global ranking of 93) was placed first among Iranian universities, followed by Sharif University of Technology (ranking 142 globally) and Amirkabir University of Technology (ranking 169 globally), ISNA reported.

Iran University of Science and Technology (172), Isfahan University of Technology and University of Tabriz (212), Shahid Beheshti University (214), Shiraz University (241), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (261), K.N. Toosi University of Technology (287), University of Isfahan (293) were ranked fourth to tenth.