A total of 7 Iranian universities have been listed among the world’s top in biotechnology subject, according to the Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS).

Tabriz University of Medical Science, Islamic Azad University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, University of Tehran, Isfahan University of Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and Tarbiat Modarres University were among the best biotechnology institutions.

ShanghaiRanking began to publish world university ranking by academic subjects in 2009. By introducing improved methodology, the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects was first published in 2017.

The 2021 GRAS contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. More than 1,800 out of 4,000 universities across 93 countries and regions are finally listed in the rankings.

The GRAS rankings use a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure the performance of world universities in respective subjects, including research output (Q1), research influence (CNCI), an international collaboration (IC), research quality (Top), and international academic awards (Award).

The index of international academic awards is based on Academic Excellence Survey (AES) conducted by ShanghaiRanking since 2017. By February 2021, more than 1000 professors from top world universities have participated in the survey. Their responses have revealed 164 top journals in 48 subjects and 32 top awards in 27 subjects.

Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Technical University of Denmark top the list in the subdivision of biotechnology.

In the field of engineering, there are 22 subcategories, and Iranian universities have participated in most of the fields. In other subcategories, the Iranian universities are also included, but the University of Tehran ranked the highest among the country’s universities.

Shining at world rankings 2021

Most recently, the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2021 listed 26 Iranian institutions among the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger.

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.

Also, 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.