The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced that Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 reviewed the results of its 2026 edition, which evaluated 2,191 institutions from 115 countries around the world.

Higher Education highlighted that twenty-five Iraqi universities achieved their top scorers in the ranking, which showed an increase in the number of Iraqi universities compared to the 2025 edition, which included twenty-two universities.

The Ministry demonstrated that the universities competed in the Times Higher Education rankings (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking) according to key criteria based on eighteen performance indicators across five areas: teaching (learning environment) (29.5%), research environment (29%), quality of research (30%), international outlook (7.5%), and industry income (4%).

Higher Education also reviewed that the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) has launched the Study in Iraq programme (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/where-to-study/study-in-iraq) to introduce international students to Iraqi universities that are highly rated and competitive with educational institutions worldwide in terms of their performance in the fields of (teaching, research, knowledge).