The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific research announced that the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2027 have been announced, featuring 42 Iraqi universities including those in the Kurdistan Region out of a total of 298 Arab universities evaluated in the rankings, which were released on October 15, 2026.

Higher Education reviewed that the University of Baghdad led the Iraqi institutions, followed by Mustansiriyah University, the University of Anbar, Al-Nahrain University, and the University of Kufa and this year’s edition saw an increase in the number of Iraqi universities included, rising from 36 in the previous year’s edition to 42 in the 2027 rankings.

The Ministry demonstrated that the ranking was launched in 2014, the QS Arab Region University Rankings assess the performance of higher education institutions based on a methodology comprising ten key indicators, as well as these include: academic reputation (30%), employer reputation (20%), faculty-to-student ratio (15%), international research network (10%), web impact (5%), the proportion of faculty members holding a Ph.D. (5%), citations per paper (5%), papers per faculty member (5%), the proportion of international faculty (2.5%), and the proportion of international students (2.5%).

It is significant to mention that the rankings (available at https://www.topuniversities.com/arab-region-university...) utilize data from the Scopus database to evaluate research performance including scientific citations and research output alongside the other indicators used to calculate the final results.

Directorate of Media & Government Communication

Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research

October 16, 2026