Objective: The porpuse of this research was to conduct a systematic review of studies on university rankings in Iran's higher education to provide an overview of the challenges faced by Iranian universities in international academic ranking systems and propose strategies for improving and enhancing the position and ranking of these universities.

Method: The research was conducted using a qualitative method of systematic review.            relevant researches were collected through electronic searches of the keywords "academic ranking" and "higher education" in the scientific databases of the Scientific Information Center of SID, and Noormags, covering the time period from 1385 to 1403 (in the Persian calendar, approximately 2006/2007 to 2024/2025). The process of identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion of the sample for study was carried out through the PRISMA protocol. In the conducted searches, 35 studies were identified for systematic review, and after removing duplicates and the performed screenings, a final total of 35 research studies that meet the inclusion criteria were analyzed.

Results: In the analysis of the challenges faced by Iranian universities in international rankings, the findings showed that the challenges in ranking Iranian universities are categorized into 6 areas: incompatibility of ranking systems with the local conditions of Iran, weaknesses of Iranian universities in online publishing, problems related to indicators, structural problems, documentation, and university responsibilities. Furthermore, the proposed strategies are collected into 4 categories: education and research, structural and organizational aspects, scientific documentation, and webometrics.

Conclusion: the results showed that Iranian universities faced multiple challenges in international rankings which originate from both internal and external contexts,therefore rethinking and recognize the factors involved in achieving rank,can be effective in success and enhancement of position.