13 Iranian Universities among top universities of Times Higher Education ranking list

Dr. Mohammad Javad Dehghani, President of Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), announced that for the first time Shiraz University, Ferdowsi University, Karaj Branch of Islamic Azad University, Yazd University and Zanjan University have been named to the 2016-2017 Times Higher Education World University Rankings list.

In 2014-2015, only 2 universities of Iran- Sharif University of Technology and Isfahan University of Technology- were present in Times Higher Education World University Rankings list, while this number rose to 8 in 2015-2016 and finally 13 in 2016-2017 list. Therefore, based on the number of top universities, Iran has climbed from 23th in 2015-2016 to 17th place in 2016-2017 in the world.



According to 2016-2017 Times Higher Education World University Rankings list, 13 universities of Iran - Iran University of Science & Technology, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Isfahan University of Technology, Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Shiraz University, Tehran University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Ferdowsi University, Karaj Branch of Islamic Azad University, Shahid Beheshti University, Yazd University and Zanjan University have joined top 978 universities of the world, revealing a significant improvement in academic excellence of the country.In 2016-2017 Iran with 13 top universities ranks second in Middle East after Turkey with 18 Top universities.

Times Higher Education is a popular ranking system, ranking universities of the world since 2004.
The performance indicators applied for ranking are grouped into five areas:
• Teaching (the learning environment)
• Research (volume, income and reputation)
• Citations (research influence)
• International outlook (staff, students and research)
• Industry income (knowledge transfer)


The University of Oxford has become the first UK university to top the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in the 12-year history of the table. It knocks the five-time leader, the California Institute of Technology, into second place in the World University Rankings 2016-2017.

Overall, 289 Asian universities from 24 countries make the overall list of 980 institutions and an elite group of 19 are in the top 200, up from 15 last years.

When analyzing which countries achieve the highest average scores, Singapore comes top on all five of the pillars underlying the ranking – teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. Hong Kong is second for teaching, third for research and fourth for citations.