TEHRAN – The 2025 Leiden University Ranking System included 48 Iranian universities among the world’s top 1,594 universities, up from 46 in 2024, ranking the country first among Islamic countries in terms of number of universities for the second year in a row.
This year’s ranking includes a total of 184 universities from Islamic countries. Turkey with 45 universities, Saudi Arabia with 20, Pakistan with 16 and Egypt with 15 came in second and fifth place respectively, IRNA reported.
The University of Tehran (166th in the world), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (235th), and Iran University of Science and Technology (361st) are ranked 1st to 3rd in the country.
Tarbiat Modares University (372), Shahid Beheshti Medical University (383), Amikavir University of Technology (408), Tabriz University (508), Sharif University of Technology (510), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (512), and Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (525) are ranked from 4th to 10th, respectively.
The Leiden Ranking provides indicators of scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity. Size is important when comparing universities. Performance can be viewed in absolute or relative terms (e.g. number and proportion of highly cited publications). Therefore, scale-dependent and scale-independent indicators are consistently presented together in the Leiden Ranking. This highlights the need to consider both types of indicators. This ranking uses publications from four years (2020-2023 for 2025 releases).
Compared to other university rankings, the Leiden Ranking provides more advanced bibliographic indicators. The underlying methodology is well documented. The Leiden Ranking only provides information about the research carried out at the university. Research is published in publications and carefully collected data on these publications forms the basis of the Leiden ranking. This basis also guarantees the independence of the Leiden ranking, as it does not rely on data submitted by the universities themselves. Finally, because universities are complex institutions with different forms, backgrounds, and missions, their performance cannot be expressed in a single number.
Recent rankings
Times Higher Education’s 2026 World University Rankings ranked 101 Iranian universities in the top ranks, up from 85 in 2025.
The 2026 ranking includes 2,191 universities from 115 countries and regions. There were 99 new entries compared to last year.
THE World University Rankings is the only global report card that evaluates research-intensive universities across their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international perspective.
Amirkabir University of Technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, and Sharif University of Technology are the top universities in Iran, with world rankings of 351-400.
Iran University of Science and Technology and the University of Tehran jointly took second place, ranking between 401 and 500 in the world ranking. Shiraz University of Technology and Tehran University of Medical Sciences were ranked 501-600 in the world, ranking jointly in third place.
Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Goreslan University, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan University of Technology, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tabriz University, Urmia Medical University.
The 2024 World University Rankings (WUR) report by the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) includes 72 Iranian universities, up from 69 in 2023. The ranking lists a total of 426 universities from 31 Islamic countries, with 102 universities from Turkey, 72 from Iran, and 39 from Pakistan ranking first to third, IRNA reported.
Among the top universities in Islamic countries, Saudi Arabia is ranked 172nd. Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Egypt jointly rank 401-450, Qatar 451-500 and Turkey, UAE and Lebanon 501-600.
Tehran University’s ranking changed from 501-600 in 2023 to 401-500 in 2024. The university ranked first in the country. 2nd place goes to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The university’s world ranking is 501-600, up from 601-700 in 2023.
The ranking of Shahid Beheshti Medical University also improved from 801-900 in 2023 to 601-700 in 2024, making it 3rd in the country. Sharif University of Technology and Tarbiat Modares University were ranked 4th and 5th respectively.
In the 2025 Shanghai University Ranking, six Iranian universities were ranked among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, down from nine in 2024. Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the University of Tehran are among the top 500 universities in the world, ranking between 401 and 500 in the world rankings. Tarviat Modares University is ranked 701-800.
Shahid Beheshti Medical University and Sharif University of Technology are ranked 801-900. Iran University of Medical Sciences is ranked 901-1000. The July edition of the Webometrics World Rankings includes the same 64 Iranian medical universities as the January edition, of which 11 have improved their rankings compared to the January edition.
Tehran University of Medical Sciences (485th) is the only university ranked among the world’s top 500 institutions, Mehr News Agency reported. Among Iranian universities, Mazandara University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, and Yazd University of Medical Sciences rose by 1002nd, 961st, and 948th place, respectively.
Other universities that have significantly improved their rankings include Sharekord Medical University, Urmia Medical University, Ilam Medical University, Kashan Medical University, Alborz Medical University, Kordestan Medical University, Gonabad Medical University, and Marageh Medical University.
MT/MG