Ranking

About the Ranking Unit

The Ranking Unit at the University of Zakho (UoZ) leads the university's work to improve its position in national, regional, and global university rankings. We work with colleges, departments, researchers, and administrative offices to make UoZ's achievements visible, measurable, and accurately reported.

Our mission

To raise the academic reputation and international standing of the University of Zakho by supporting research quality, open knowledge, international collaboration, and transparent reporting of institutional data.

Our vision

A university recognized in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and worldwide for academic excellence and social impact.

Our goals

1. Strengthen UoZ's position in the Times Higher Education (THE), QS, Webometrics, and other major rankings.
2. Increase the volume, quality, and visibility of UoZ research.
3. Expand international partnerships, exchange, and visiting academics.
4. Promote sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals across the university.
5. Ensure that every data submission is accurate, complete, and on time.

What we do

• Monitor rankings: we track UoZ's performance in each ranking and explain what the results mean.
• Manage data: we collect and verify institutional data and prepare ranking submissions.
• Support staff: we offer guidance on researcher profiles, publication, and open access.
• Coordinate across the university: we work with a ranking coordinator in each college and department.
• Plan and report: we develop the annual ranking improvement plan and report progress to university leadership.
• Communicate results: we publish UoZ's rankings, achievements, and updates on this website.

Global Rankings leaderships

The University of Zakho is a leading Iraqi university in the major international rankings. Our results reflect the work of our researchers, teachers, and students, and our commitment to quality, openness, and international collaboration.

Highlights

#1 in Iraq
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027
Global band: 1001–1200

Our Strategy

The University of Zakho's ranking strategy is built on a simple idea: rankings reward real academic quality that is openly shared and accurately reported. Our strategy therefore focuses on improving research, openness, international engagement, and impact, and on making sure UoZ's achievements are visible to the world.

Our strategic pillars

1. Research quality and output
We support researchers to publish more, and in higher-quality journals.

• A uniform UoZ affiliation in every publication
• Support for language editing, statistics and methods, and journal selection
• Priority for Q1 and Q2 journals, and a firm stance against predatory publishing
• Recognition for high-impact research

2. Visibility and open access
We make UoZ's work easy to find and use.

• A fully indexed institutional repository for theses, papers, and data
• Up-to-date ORCID, Scopus, OpenAlex, and Google Scholar profiles for every researcher
• Complete English pages for every college and department
• Better web governance and strong links from other sites

3. International engagement
We turn partnerships into real collaboration.

• Joint research and co-authorship with international universities
• Exchange programmes and visiting academics
• Support for international students, including scholarships and short programmes

4. Sustainability and societal impact
We show how UoZ contributes to its community and to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

• Evidence and reporting for THE Impact Rankings, QS Sustainability, and UI GreenMetric
• Public policies on research ethics, equality, environment, and governance
• Community engagement and industry collaboration

5. Data quality and governance
We make sure every submission is accurate, complete, and on time.

• One central, verified system for ranking data
• A ranking coordinator in every college and department
• Quarterly reporting to university leadership

Our approach to each ranking

• THE and QS: we focus on research output and citations, international collaboration, reputation, and accurate institutional data.
• Webometrics: we focus on web visibility, researcher profiles, and highly cited research.
• Impact and sustainability rankings: we focus on documented evidence and public policies.

Annual plan and targets

Each year we publish an action plan with measurable targets, for example:

• All academic staff with verified researcher profiles.