1.Babol Noshirvani University of Technology
Known for its spectacular scenery, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology is a co-educational public research university in Babol, 20km from the Mazandaran Sea (Caspian Sea). It is the only technological university in northern Iran.
Founded in 1970, it was originally known as the Technical Teachers Training Institute of Babol, and was intended to train students into technical instructors in the various fields of engineering.
It was joined to the University of Mazandaran in 1979, and renamed a College of Engineering, before regaining some independence and being renamed as Noshirvani Institute of Technology (Babol Noshiravani Technical and Educational Complex), before gaining status as its own university with its current name in 2008.
The major faculties of the university include Basic Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The 11-hectare campus is spread over three buildings, housing four engineering departments and several laboratories, as well as a 750-seat amphitheatre.
2.Sharif University of Technology
Sharif University of Technology, founded in 1966, is one of the largest engineering schools in Iran. When it was established, the university had just 54 members of faculty, and 412 students. It now has more than 10,000 students.
Located in Tehran, the capital of Iran, SUT was previously known as the Aryamehr University of Industry but was renamed after former student Majid Sharif Vaghefi, who was killed in 1975.
The university, which has a reputation in Iran as being one of the country’s most prestigious higher education institutions, offers a range of graduate and postgraduate degrees in its 15 departments, and does not only offer engineering courses.
Among other non-engineering schools are its Department of Philosophy of Science, its School of Management and Economics, and its Department of Languages and Linguistics.
Each department has its own laboratories, library, and workshops, and students can choose to take humanities and social sciences courses to complement their technical studies.
Admission for undergraduates wishing to study at Sharif University of Technology is tough. Only those obtaining the top 5 per cent of scores in Iran’s national entrance examination, carried out by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Higher Education, can enroll.
SUT’s current chancellor is Mahmoud Fotouhi Firouzabad, a graduate of Sharif University of Technology who also studied at the University of Tehran and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
Among SUT’s famous alumni are Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament; pianist, Peyman Yazdanian; international football’s all-time leading goalscorer Ali Daei; and Elshan Moradi, chess grandmaster.
3. Amirkabir University of Technology
Opened in 1958, Amirkabir University of Technology has grown to be one of the main spots to study engineering in Iran. As a public institution, it is mostly funded by the state.
Amirkabir University of Technology is spread across four campuses and boasts some 14,000 square metres of green space. The main campus is located in the old and busy centre of Teheran, and the other three are in the small towns of Mahshahr, Garmsar and the port town Bandar Abbas. The university owns about 250 research and educational labs, as well as a stadium and hosts a range of sports students can join.
Some of the areas Amirkabir specialises in are robotics, advanced textile materials and technology research, energy research, transportation, renewable energy, optics, nanotechnology and environment research. Regular competitions and conferences are part of academic life at the university. Alongside engineering and mathematical subjects, an MBA is also available.
Although the focus of the university is on sciences, Amirkabir’s notable alumni have gone to have varied careers. Among its famous engineers and scientists are nuclear engineer Majid Shahriari, chemical engineer Naeimeh Eshraghi and nuclear scientist and politician Ali Abbaspoor Tehrani Fard.
But Amirkabir has also formed politicians and cultural figures such as members of the Iranian parliament and reformist politicians Soheila Jelodarzadeh and Seyedeh Fatemeh Hosseini, film director Davod Mir-Bagheri and writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad.
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action enabled technological and scientific cooperation between Iranian and United Nations researchers. This has allowed Amirkabir University of Technology to create links with universities around the world in the form of student and professor exchanges, dual degrees and joint workshops.
AUT also offers online courses.
4.Isfahan University of Technology (IUT)
Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) is a state run university under the supervision of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. IUT is one of the major universities and research centres in Iran in the fields of science, engineering, agriculture and natural resources. IUT was founded in 1974 and began its academic activities in 1977 with about 800 students in five departments. Today it has 14 departments offering BSc, MSc and PhD programmes. Graduates from IUT have found great and varied opportunities and have played key roles in rapidly changing economic and industrial environments. The established national and international reputation of IUT is based on the quality and distinctiveness of the research and scholarly activity of its faculties and students.
5.Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)
The Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) was founded in 1929 in the Iranian capital Tehran in order to train the country’s engineers and today is considered one of the foremost technical schools in the country.
Originally named the Governmental Technical Institute, it was later called the Advanced Art College before being upgraded to the Iran Faculty of Science and Technology in 1972. In 1978 the Ministry of Sciences granted the faculty full university status and IUST was born.
The university is home to 13 faculties offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a range of engineering-based subjects as well as maths and physics. In 1995 IUST awarded Iran’s first PhDs in Materials, Metallurgical and Traffic Engineering.
There are also 12 research centres, nine centres of excellence and 19 specialised libraries as well as four satellite campuses in other parts of the country.
The campus is situated in the Narmark area in the northeast of Tehran on 42 acres that include academic and administrative buildings, the main library, halls of residence, mosque and indoor and outdoor sports facilities. The university also boasts a 20,000 seater sports stadium.
Alumni include many current and former government ministers but most notably Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s sixth president both studied and taught at the university. Ahmadinejad enrolled in the undergraduate degree in civil engineering at IUST in 1976 before going on to study a masters and then a PhD in traffic and transportation engineering and planning, joining the faculty as a lecturer in 1989.
