The international ranking systems of universities have been created and affected by the intense competition of universities at the national and international levels in line with goals such as improving the quality of universities, the participation of universities in the transfer of science and knowledge to the scientific community, and guiding and attracting students in choosing the university where they want to study.
The purpose of ranking is to know the position of an institution compared to other institutions based on the measurement of a combination of criteria and indicators, and finally, a list of the names of universities and institutions is announced in a ranked form. The ranking of universities and institutions is considered an integral part of higher education systems, and with targeted, structured, and accurate evaluation of universities' performance, their quality continues to be improved.
Therefore, with a detailed understanding of the criteria and indicators of the global ranking systems, it is possible to make policies, develop strategic plans, and design detailed and comprehensive performance indicators for the ranking of institutions and universities, whereby creating a competitive atmosphere facilitates rapid progress and achievement of higher education goals.
The Webometrics global ranking system created in 2004 by the Cybermetrics Laboratory of the National Research Council of Spain, which is the most significant research group in this country, publishes the results of evaluating universities' research and educational presence on the web through university websites every year in January and July.
The primary purpose of publishing this ranking is to promote universities' web presence and participation in open access to transfer science and knowledge to the scientific community. It should be noted that this ranking does not seek to evaluate the website, design, and use its content, but it seeks to evaluate the global performance of universities based on their activities, achievements, and impact.
The Times ranking system is one of the most reliable international systems in evaluating and ranking universities worldwide. For the first time in 2004, the Times database, in cooperation with the QS database, published a list of the top universities in the world, and with the completion of the collaboration between these two databases, the Times started evaluating scientific centers independently in 2010. The Times ranking system evaluates the world universities based on 13 indicators in 5 criteria.