The university often benchmarks itself against its peers and other related institutions.  University of Iowa peer and comparison groups include:

Association of American Universities (AAU)

The University of Iowa is a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization of 71 universities recognized for their excellence in research.

Big Ten Athletic Conference

The University of Iowa is a member of the Big Ten Athletic Conference. The 14 members of the Big Ten are:

Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA)

The University of Iowa is also one of the 15 members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), sometimes known as the "academic Big Ten." The BTAA comprises the 14 members of the Big Ten Athletic Conference:

plus:

UI Peer Group

Because the members of the Big Ten and BTAA differ from one another in a variety of ways (for example, some campuses have large health sciences centers and others do not), the University of Iowa regularly uses an "official UI Peer Group" to benchmark itself against other, similar, institutions.

The university formed the official UI Peer Group in the mid-1980s, and the Board of Regents, State of Iowa approved it. It included all of the public universities in the Big Ten at the time (Penn State was not yet a member), except for Michigan State and Purdue, which did not have comparable health science centers at the time. In addition, four comparable campuses from various geographical regions of the country were added.

Following a comprehensive evaluation of the official peer group in 2023, two positions within the group were updated to align the university with peers who offer more relevant comparisons across a range of metrics. 

The 10 public university members of the official UI Peer Group are:

Regents Comparison Group

In some reports, at the request of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, the University of Iowa provides comparison benchmarking data for a group that includes all of the Big Ten public universities plus the three non-Big Ten universities that are part of the official UI Peer Group: Arizona, North Carolina, and Utah.