Sustainable urban development is a kind of cities and urban areas development that meets the needs of today's city and citizens without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In sustainable urban development, economic, environmental and social sustainability is a priority. In the other hand, Human capital, which is referred to as institutionalized knowledge in humans or the quality of labor, mainly produce and develop through universities and higher education institutions located in or around the cities and has many economic and non-economic effects that can play an important role in the growth and development of cities and lead to the improvement and promotion of cities situation in relevant international rankings. Local and global statistics show that Tehran does not have an appropriate position among Asian and world cities despite benefiting prestigious universities and academic centers. In this study, while expanding and explaining the market and non-market effects of human capital,  four generations of university, namely educational, research, entrepreneur and socially accountable university, have been described and the role of  human capital through the fourth generation of university in improving the cities sustainable development has been analyzed by focus on Tehran . The results indicated that the human and knowledge capital was suspended in the city, which in a way means not using of this knowledge and human capital produced and accumulated in the city and society to realize urban sustainable development. Through a model presented at the end of the article, the crucial role of the higher education system and universities in producing and developing human  capital and making good and sustainable cities, and finally improving the quality of citizen’s life and promoting the position of cites in the  world rankings, was confirmed.