Abstarct: The rapid growth of urbanization in contemporary times has increased the human need for open space. One of the most important principles of open space design is to pay attention to thermal comfort in order to improve the quality of space and to satisfy users. Numerous factors affect the thermal comfort quality of open spaces; among them, shading is one of the most important. This study investigates the effect of shade on students' thermal comfort in Shahrood University of Technology in Iran in the hot season. For this purpose, field studies were conducted including measurement of major climatic parameters as well as evaluation the thermal perception of students by using thermal comfort questionnaires simultaneously at four points of campus (plants shade, building shade, horizontal shading (canopy) and sunlight). In this paper, the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) is used as a thermal comfort index. The neutral PET value of 21.9°C and the maximum value in the PET comfort range of 26.9°C is obtained for this study. The results show that there is a significant relationship between location and thermal comfort. The plants shade creates an acceptable thermal environment with more than 80% user satisfaction. After that, the canopy and the building shade also provide environmental satisfaction for the majority of people who were present in these areas, while the most uncomfortable condition is in the sunlight position. Shaded locations decrease the PET value and thermal stress on sunny days and increase comfort levels as well as comfort hours during the day. Therefore, it can be concluded that shading and blocking direct solar radiation using vegetation or building elements can greatly improve thermal comfort in outdoor space in the hot season.