MENA top 30 snapshot released as THE MENA Universities Summit launches

Institutions from 11 countries feature in a top 30 that previews what a new ranking of universities in the Middle East and North Africa could look like

February 24, 2015

A third of the universities in the table, which was drawn up by Times Higher Education and measures research impact, are based in Egypt. However, the country has only one institution in the top 10: Beni-Suef University, which was ninth. 

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have three institutions in the top 30, which was released as THE holds its inaugural MENA Universities Summit in Qatar.

The event includes a consultation on proposals for a full THE ranking for the region, building on the flagship World University Rankings. This would combine the citation scores from Elsevier’s Scopus database, used for this snapshot, with a wider range of performance metrics.

The top five had been released last month, putting Texas A&M University at Qatar in first place ahead of the Lebanese American University. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University was third, ahead of Qatar University and the American University of Beirut.

The rest of the top 10 includes two Saudi institutions: King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, and King Saud University, in seventh and eighth respectively.

Morocco’s Cadi Ayyad University was sixth, while Jordan’s Hashemite University was 10th.

Phil Baty, editor of the THE World University Rankings, said the top 30 gave us “fascinating insight into the research strengths of the MENA region” but was “just a snapshot to stimulate wider discussions about the most appropriate metrics for ranking the region’s universities”.

“The THE World University Rankings use 13 separate performance indicators to judge institutions across the full range of activities – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook – and we would like to extend this tried and trusted formula to the MENA region,” he said.

“The question we are discussing here at the summit in Qatar is what is the appropriate range and balance of metrics to suit the specific missions of MENA institutions, and whether we can develop new indicators specifically for the region.”

The top 30 snapshot was calculated using the ratio of the citations received by an institution’s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field.

Qatar, Lebanon and Morocco each had two universities in the top 30, as did Jordan, Algeria and Tunisia.

To register your institution for the annual data collection round which will allow it to be included in the THE World University Rankings analyses, please contact: profilerankings@timeshighereducation.com


MENA top 30 snapshot

Rank Institution Country Publications Score
1 Texas A&M University at Qatar QAT 519.87 91.91
2 Lebanese American University LEB 332.63 85.45
3 King Abdulaziz University SAU 3673.46 83.72
4 Qatar University QAT 772.69 76.00
5 American University of Beirut LEB 2319.69 75.14
6 Cadi Ayyad University MAR 901.78 74.71
7 King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals SAU 2869.33 71.57
8 King Saud University SAU 7141.93 71.30
9 Beni-Suef University EGY 492.04 70.75
10 Hashemite University JOR 690.48 70.18
11 United Arab Emirates University UAE 1762.86 69.68
12 Djillali Liabes University ALG 492.31 69.49
13 Mohammed V University at Agdal MAR 1472.52 66.13
14 Suez Canal University EGY 987.26 65.50
15 American University in Cairo EGY 676.43 63.14
16 Sultan Qaboos University OMA 1591.16 61.57
17 American University of Sharjah UAE 842.01 61.53
18 University of Tunis TUN 1050.99 60.93
19 Minia University EGY 720.32 60.70
20 Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi UAE 602.59 60.44
21 Sohag University EGY 442.54 60.16
22 Kuwait University KUW 2098.09 59.84
23 Assiut University EGY 1577.02 59.72
24 Yarmouk University JOR 494.15 59.24
25 South Valley University EGY 633.56 59.09
26 Alexandria University EGY 2539.79 58.97
  University of Bejaia ALG 311.26 58.45
28 National Engineering School of Sfax TUN 799.60 57.99
29 Mansoura University EGY 79.96 57.09
30 University of Tanta EGY 1257.54 56.52

 

Times Higher Education free 30-day trial

Register to continue

Why register?

  • Registration is free and only takes a moment
  • Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
  • Sign up for our newsletter
Register
Please Login or Register to read this article.

Reader's comments (2)

Why are no Israeli universities included in this table? Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University and the Technion are all far better than any of the universities in this table.
MATTHEW ISRAEL IS NOT A FUCKING COUNTRY that's why they're not on the list

Sponsored