Academic System of Iranian Universities

In 2008, Iran had over 3.5 million students enrolled in universities. Some 1.7 million in various programs in Islamic Azad university and the remainder in State universities. In addition the new enrollment numbers for the academic year 2004 were 290 thousand in Azad universities, and 250 thousand in State universities. Iran currently has 54 state operated universities, and 42 state medical schools. These are primarily the top choice for students in national entrance exams, and have the largest and most prestigious programs. There are 289 major private universities operating as well. In addition there are over 40,000 students engaged in Masters programs and 20,000 students in PhD programs. In all these schools, except for private universities such as the Islamic Azad University system, tuition and room and board, is mostly paid for by the government. The universities themselves largely operate on state budgets. There are also institutes like Payame Noor University that offer degrees remotely or online.

Some schools offer degrees in conjunction with European Universities. The International University of Chabahar for example offers programs under the guidance of London School of Economics and Political Science Goldsmiths University of London, and Royal Holloway. Other schools such as the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan, have close collaboration with The International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy for workshops, seminars, and summer schools. The Iranian government also offers intensely competitive but fully paid scholarships for successful applicants to pursue PhD level studies in Great Britain.

As of October 24 or 25th, the President of Iran has indicated that many college courses taught by Iranian Universities are too westernized and do not comply with Muslim law. Those courses may be changed radically to comply with Muslim law - or, they may be completely eliminated

By early 2000, Iran allocated around 0.4% of its GDP to R&D, which ranks it "far behind industrialized societies" and the world average of 1.4%. By 2009 this ratio of research to GDP reached 0.87% and the set target is 2.5%.

Rankings
The U.S. News & World Report published a global ranking for universities and institutes of higher education in 2017. The best global universities in Iran were ranked as follows:

Almost none of these universities however are mentioned (or perhaps not evaluated) in the 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities (link), nor in The Times Higher Education Supplement. Sharif University of Technology and University of Tehran are the only Iranian universities that appear in the THES world ranking for 2008. The universities ranked above 400 are listed alphabetically in this list, thus the exact ranks of these two universities are unavailable.

Iranian authorities however ignore such rankings, and claim that, according to Chancellor of Tehran University, "Iran is third in Science and Technology in Asia after Japan and Turkey".

Critics further claim that for the case of Iran, rankings such as SJT and THES fail to provide an accurate image when assessing Iran's institutions of higher education, since graduates from these universities routinely are well prepared and end up matriculating into the competitive elite graduate schools of Europe and the United States in comparatively large numbers.

Ranking by number of publications (ISI)
In terms of the number of papers published via Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), the 2007 ranking of medical and non-medical universities of Iran is as follows:

Ranking by number of publications

The most number of papers published in the following fields by order:
Chemistry
Medicine
Engineering
Physics

Ranking of Medical Schools
ISC's most recent list of the highest top ranked universities in the medical field for 2012 is:
Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Former National University)
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
Tabriz University of Medical Sciences
Mashad University of Medical Sciences
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Ranking of Dental Schools
According to the 2007 rankings the top 5 rated schools in the dental field in Iran are:
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Mashad University of Medical Sciences
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
Kerman University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services and Hamedan University of Medical Sciences
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and Babol University of Medical Sciences

Ranking of Pharmacy Schools
According to the 2010 rankings the top 3 rated schools in the pharmaceutical field in Iran are:
Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Ranking of Engineering Schools
According to the 2012 university ranking of Islamic countries the top ranked engineering schools in the engineering field in Iran are:
Sharif University of Technology
Amirkabir University of Technology
Iran University of Science and Technology
Isfahan University of Technology
K.N. Toosi University of Technology