University of Birjand


The University of Birjand is the largest and oldest public university in the east of Iran. In 2018, the University was ranked 300-350 in Asia University Ranking and +1000 in World University Ranking by Times Higher Education. The University of Birjand also achieved a top rank in Times Higher Education Young University Rankings, 2019. It is also one of the 33 Iranian universities listed in the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for engineering and technology.
The university has a multilingual website.

History

The University of Birjand was initially founded in 1975. In its 102nd meeting, the Council of Higher Education Development approved the establishment of a higher education center in Birjand. In July 1975, Professor Mohammad Hassan Ganji, who is credited as being the Father of Modern Geography in Iran, was appointed as the first president of the university to pursue its affairs.
The academic activities of the University of Birjand started by admitting students in 1989 for an associate degree in Electronics. Then, three departments namely, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry were established. In 1991, the Institution of Higher Education was upgraded and renamed as the University of Birjand. After the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the University collaborated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology for holding the higher education programs in line with the principles set by the Cultural Revolution Committee for Universities. During the next years, many academic faculties such as Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Electronics, Power and Computer Sciences, and Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences were founded in the University of Birjand.

Current status

Currently, the University of Birjand includes 14 faculties and colleges. It is now home to more than 12000 students studying in more than 330 graduate and undergraduate programs with more than 360 full time and many other part-time faculty members. The university has an Innovation and Accelerating Center.

University of Birjand in Times Higher Education World University Rankings

There are two main campuses within which all almost all departments and offices are located. Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Natural Resources and the Environmental Studies are located in Amirabad Site in the west of the city. The main campus is called Shokatabad, which encompasses all other faculties. Furthermore, Ferdows, Nehbandan, Sarbishe and Sarayan are cities near Birjand, where 4 satellite campuses of the University are located.