This paper explains the development of a system of academic ranking across the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) colleges and universities. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHE) at KRG has embarked on a project to develop a system for ranking the universities under their jurisdiction. The MHE wanted their ranking system to be modeled on other established university ranking systems. They studied other systems of academic rankings, considered the factors that goes into them systems and tried to create a similar system of providing data in order to issue such ranking reports.
However, dissimilarities between the established academic system and that of the KRG necessitated modifying to the ranking system in order to provide a reliable and relevant ranking report. This study explains the steps involved in establishing a system for ranking academic performance of Kurdistan universities. It begins by reviewing literature about the established systems of academic ranking, and the factors that are included in their ranking systems. It then details the factors that typically considered into completing such ranking system and how the MHE attempted to modify some of them in order to produce a reliable ranking system of higher education in Kurdistan universities.