The international rating agency Times Higher Education has announced a new regional pilot ranking analysis called the Central Eurasia University Rankings for 2026. This initiative was developed to analyze higher education institutions in the Turkic countries based on global assessment criteria and determine their regional competitiveness.

Mirzo Ulugbek National University of Uzbekistan was listed as a TOP-50 university, taking 43rd place among 122 universities in the region.

For information, 57 higher education institutions in Uzbekistan are included in this ranking as reporters, that is, data contributors.

This pilot ranking is based on the methodology of THE’s world university rankings, but the scope of the assessment is limited to the Central Eurasian region only. Universities are assessed according to 17 key indicators. These include the following criteria: teaching environment, research environment, research quality, industry collaboration, and international outlook.

The ranking results identified the leading higher education institutions in the region:
#1 – Koç University (Turkey)
#2 – Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
#3 – Sabancı University (Turkey)
#4 – Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan)

The following universities were included in the ranking from Uzbekistan:
#7 – Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanisation
#19 – Tashkent State Technical University
#43 – National University of Uzbekistan
#51–60 – Tashkent University of Information Technologies

It should be noted that this ranking involved universities from five member states of the Turkic States Organization – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.

Also, this project is currently in a pilot format, and in the future it is planned to form a permanent regional rating. The geography of the rating and the number of participating higher education institutions are expected to gradually expand.