WANA (Nov 04) – The president of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) announced that the Leiden Ranking System has released its 2025 list of the world’s top universities in two versions — the traditional ranking and the open access ranking.

 

According to the ISC’s Public Relations Office, Mohammad Mehdi Alavianmehr stated that the number of universities included in Leiden’s traditional ranking has increased from 1,506 to 1,594, with Bangladesh, Iraq, Jamaica, Latvia, and Malta joining the list for the first time.

 

He noted that 48 Iranian universities are among the world’s top 1,594 institutions in this year’s ranking. The Leiden system, he explained, is one of the world’s most reputable academic ranking systems, evaluating universities annually based on a complex set of scientometric indicators.

 

Alavianmehr added that the 2025 Leiden Ranking assesses global universities using both size-dependent and size-independent indicators, categorized under four main criteria: scientific impact, international collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity.

 

He further explained that the ranking is based on universities’ research output indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database, covering publications from 2020 to 2023 and citations up to the end of 2024. Only articles and review papers are considered, while other formats such as books and conference papers are excluded.

 

Islamic Countries in the Leiden 2025 Ranking

Among Islamic countries, Iran ranks first in terms of the number of universities included, with 48 institutions. Turkey and Saudi Arabia follow with 45 and 20 universities, respectively, securing the second and third positions.

Leiden 2025 Rankings Released Iran Ranks First Among Islamic Countries

Number of Universities from Islamic Countries in Leiden Ranking/ WANA News Agency