The University of Basra celebrated tonight its first place ranking locally among Iraqi universities and its inclusion in the list of the top 400 universities worldwide out of 1,591 educational institutions listed in the British Times Higher Education ranking. The university's achievement of the first place locally comes in the field of Sustainable Development Projects 2023, which is one of the most important areas promoted by the United Nations in communities around the world.

Regarding the university's achievement, Professor Saad Shaheen Hammadi, President of the University of Basra, said, "This is the third time that the University of Basra has won the top ranking in the Times Higher Education ranking, which is one of the important global rankings for assessing the quality of higher education in universities worldwide. This victory is the result of the concerted efforts of all the teams responsible for global rankings, including Dr. Hussein Gatea' Abdul-Sada, as well as the cooperation of college deans, colleagues in research teams, quality assurance units and departments in our university, who all contributed to our university's prestigious international positions in the rankings, as recognized by global ranking institutions and not just within Iraq."

Shaheen added, "We should not forget the continuous support from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and government departments, which provided us with the opportunity to collaborate on numerous projects that have distinguished us in the ranking, including projects in pollution treatment, clean energy, quality education, poverty eradication, water supply and purification, and unemployment reduction. We aim to maintain this advanced position in the ranking, and we are aware that maintaining the lead is harder than achieving it. We are now striving to enter a more significant global ranking, namely the Shanghai International Ranking."During the ceremony, prominent figures who contributed to this achievement were honored.