Saudi Arabia dominated the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2019 with 23 of the country’s universities making it to the top 50. Three Saudi universities secured a place in the top 10, including the number 1 spot in the latest ranking.
The rankings released by leading British education experts Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) are based on 10 different indicators, including academic reputation, employer reputation, student/faculty ratio, international research network, web impact, proportion of staff with a PhD, citations per paper, papers per faculty, proportion of international faculty and proportion of international students.
According to the latest ranking, Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals topped the list, dethroning Lebanon’s American University of Beirut. King Fahd University received an overall score of 45.1. It scored 24.4 for academic reputation, 29.7 for employer reputation and 100 for International faculty.
The American University of Beirut was pushed to the second place in the rankings, securing 21.1 for academic reputation and 96.2 for international faculty.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz University was placed third on the list; exchanging places with King Saud University that secured fourth place in the rankings. King Abdul Aziz University secured an overall score of 40, with 99.1 for the international faculty and 63.9 for international students.
According to the QS rankings list, UAE is now home to some of the leading universities of the region with remarkable advancements in the fields of higher education, research and innovation. United Arab Emirates University succeeded in retaining its fifth spot, while the American University of Sharjah jumped from eight to seventh place.
Qatar University was ranked as the sixth best university in the region, while American University, one of the leading institutes of Egypt, dropped from sixth to the eighth position.
Oman and Jordon also managed a spot each in the top 10 of QS Arab Region University Rankings 2019, with University of Jordan securing ninth place and Omar’s Sultan Qaboos University securing 10th place among.
While Saudi Arabia dominated the higher education sector, Egypt also showed considerable development with seven of its institutes securing a spot among the top 50 higher education institutes of the region. UAE also indicated advancement in academia and research with Khalifa University and the University of Sharjah rising among the top 20 universities of the Arab region.
Vicky Lewis, a higher education consultant for a UK-based company said “It’s clear that certain Middle East governments have invested incredibly and heavily in building capabilities and drawing on international expertise, in order to build their own higher education systems” she said.
Last month, QS also released its Asian universities rankings that ranked the top 500 universities in Asia. As many as 23 Pakistani universities were named among the top 500 higher education institutes in Asia by the QS.
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