Baghdad: Thirty-six Iraqi universities have been recognized in the QS World Rankings’ special edition for the Arab region, the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2026. This achievement highlights the competitive standings of Iraqi institutions in a comprehensive evaluation of universities across the Arab region.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the global ranking evaluated 296 institutions in the Arab region using several key indicators. These indicators include academic reputation, which accounted for 30% of the evaluation, and the institution’s reputation with employers, which made up 20%. Other factors considered were the ratio of faculty members to students (15%), the international research network (10%), web impact (5%), the ratio of faculty members with a doctorate (5%), citations per research (5%), the number of researches per faculty (5%), the ratio of international faculty members (2.5%), and the ratio of international students (2.5%).

The QS World Foundation emphasized at the Iraq Education 2025 Conference that the progress of Iraqi universities in various global rankings such as Times, QS, Clarivate, and Scopus is indicative of a significant qualitative transformation in the Iraqi academic environment.