Five Top Iranian Universities in U-Multirank

Five Iranian universities have ranked in the most recent U-Multirank list. U-Multirank is a new multidimensional, user-driven approach to international ranking of higher education institutions. It compares the performances of higher education institutions – in short: universities – in the five broad dimensions of university activity: (1) teaching and learning, (2) research, (3) knowledge transfer, (4) international orientation and (5) regional engagement. The U-Multirank web tool enables comparisons at the level of the university as a whole and at the level of specific fields of study. Based on empirical data U-Multirank compares institutions with similar institutional profiles (‘like-with-like’) and allows users to develop their own personalised rankings by selecting indicators in terms of their own preferences.

Based on the results of a feasibility study covering 150 universities which was carried out in 2010/11, the European Commission decided to fund the implementation of U-Multirank. This roll out is carried out by a consortium led by Professor Frans van Vught of the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente in the Netherlands and Professor Frank Ziegele of the Centre for Higher Education (CHE) in Germany. Other partner organisations include the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) from Leiden University, the International Centre for Research on Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation Management (INCENTIM) at the Catholic University Leuven, the academic publisher Elsevier, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the software firm Folge 3. The consortium also works closely with a range of national ranking partners and stakeholder organisations.

Amid the names of different universities, five Iranian universities names took the viewers’ attention. These universities include: Tehran University, Sharif University, Tarbiat-Modares University, Amirkabir University of Technology, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

The first U-Multirank ranking is the 2014 edition, covering more than 850 higher education institutions from more than 70 countries. It provides a ranking at the institutional level as a whole as well as at the level of specific fields of study. For the latter, the fields of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, business studies and physics are covered in the 2014 edition. After 2014, the coverage of institutions and fields will expand. For the 2015 edition the aim is to add 150-250 new universities and three new subject fields (psychology, computer science, medicine).

U-Multirank is an independent ranking prepared with seed funding from the European Union. The work of the U-Multirank consortium is overseen by an Advisory Board.