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[nomad soul]

U.S. News Releases 2015 Best Arab Region Universities Rankings
By Devon Haynie, US News | 4 November 2014
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-news-releases-2015-best-arab-region-universities-140000691.html

Universities in the Arab region are undergoing a period of rapid transition, with more than a decade of expansion in enrollment, including more female students. Since 2002, the number of institutions in the region has more than doubled, according to a report by the Brookings Institution, a U.S.-based public policy think tank.

Still, with no standardized educational data available, students and parents have had few ways of comparing top universities -- at least until now. After creating a directory of the 800-plus universities in the region last year, U.S. News has now launched its inaugural Best Arab Region Universities rankings, the most in-depth rankings of their kind. The 2015 rankings include the top Arab region universities overall, based on their academic research performance, as well as separate rankings in 16 subject areas, including computer science, engineering and medicine.

The overall Best Arab Region Universities rankings feature 91 schools from 16 countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Saudi Arabian universities claimed the top three spots in the overall rankings. King Saud University, founded in 1957 in the capital of Riyadh, took the No.1 spot. King Abdulaziz University, based in Jeddah and the largest university in the country, landed in second place, while King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, located in Thuwal and one of the newest schools in the region, earned third place. Saudi Arabia has about 1 million students enrolled in its universities and colleges, up from 7,000 in 1970, according to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington. Of those, more than half are female.

Egypt's Cairo University, located in Giza, placed No. 4 overall. Lebanon's American University of Beirut, a school based on the American liberal arts model, ranked No. 5. Egypt was the top-performing country in the overall rankings, with 21 schools featured. About 23 percent of the schools in the rankings were located in the northeast African country, where a European-style education system was introduced by Ottoman rulers in the early 1800s. Algeria and Saudi Arabia tied for second place, with 13 schools each. Together, Egypt, Algeria and Saudi Arabia accounted for about 52 percent of the ranked schools.

Beyond the overall rankings of the top 91 institutions, the Best Arab Region Universities subject rankings allow students to compare leading schools in 16 key academic areas. These rankings, which focus on institutions' academic research performance in those specific subjects, are not evaluations of academic majors, departments or specific schools at universities, such as medical schools. Saudi Arabia had the highest-ranked university in all but one subject -- social sciences. In that discipline, which includes law, education and political science, Lebanon's American University of Beirut took first place. Three universities were ranked in all 16 subjects: Egypt's Cairo University and Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz University and King Saud University. Egypt's Ain Shams University and Tunisia's Université de Sfax ranked in 15 of the subjects.

The Best Arab Region Universities rankings -- which are based on bibliometric data and research metrics provided by Scopus, part of the Elsevier Research Intelligence portfolio -- are independent of the recently released U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings of the top research universities worldwide. The Arab region rankings are aimed directly at prospective students, parents, policymakers and employers in the region, to allow them to accurately compare institutions. With that in mind, U.S. News focused specifically on institutions' academic research output and performance, using factors such as the number of published papers and citations, and not on their separate undergraduate or graduate programs.

Branch campuses in the Arab region that are operated by a parent university in another country were not considered for the overall or subject rankings. For example, schools such as New York University Abu Dhabi and Carnegie Mellon University Qatar weren't included, since they are operated by universities in the U.S. However, U.S. News has published a list of more than 50 of these branch campuses as a resource for students.

Universities that did well in the inaugural rankings may find their positions shifting in the future. This year's rankings of the Best Arab Region Universities is the first in a series of rankings meant to make information about the region's institutions more transparent and accessible. Moving forward, U.S. News plans to include other ranking factors, including reputation surveys of Arab region academics and employers, as well as school-reported data.

(End of article)

See the complete rankings of "Best Arab Region Universities Rankings" http://www.usnews.com/education/arab-region-universities/rankings?int=9e2808

[veiledsentiments]

So, USNews and World Report does even worse ranking ME universities than US universities. We all know that it is sadly inaccurate...

VS

[plumpy nut]

It's beneath any Western agency to treat ME universities like they would U.S. universities.

[returnee2014]

It's seems weird to me that the top 3 schools would all be in the KSA and named after Saudi Kings.

I'd cry foul, but Zuckerman is no fan of the Saudi royal family.

Theories?

[finebyeme]

Thank you for posting this article.

[nomad soul]

On a related note:

Another Arab University Ranking is Out, But Is It Needed?
By Benjamin Plackett, Al Fanar Media | 12 Jun 2015
Source: http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2015/06/another-arab-university-ranking-is-out-but-is-it-needed/

The most recent list of top Arab universities, out this week, includes some of the same names that graced previous findings by other rankings companies. But some education experts question whether anyone should pay attention.

QS World University Rankings released what they believe to be the 100 best universities in the region on June 10th. The top five are:
– King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Arabia)
– American University of Beirut
– King Saud University (Saudi Arabia)
– King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia)
– The American University in Cairo

The American University of Beirut and King Abdulaziz University also placed in the top five of the other two major rankings by Times Higher Education (THE) and U.S. News & World Report. But there remain discrepancies between the companies—for example the Lebanese American University came in second place according to THE, 52nd by U.S. News and in 15th position according to QS.

While Saudi Arabia dominates the top five of the QS rankings, the top 15 show a more varied geographical origin, with universities from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Qatar. In contrast to THE, which weighted the research prowess of universities heavily, QS included more variables. Academic reputation was the most influential metric in its analysis, accounting for up to 30 percent of an institution’s score. Academic reputation was gauged by the response of surveys sent to academics in which QS asked them to name the institution they thought to be producing the best scholarly work.

The second most influential measurement was reputation among employers. A similar survey was sent to companies who were asked which universities produce the best graduates. The responses to that survey were weighted at 20 percent. QS included other metrics, such as the ratio of faculty members to students and the number of academic papers produced per faculty member. The company was hoping to include the number of Arabic academic citations, but failed to find a reliable data source.

QS decided to give more weight to employer reputation than it has for other regions it has previously ranked. “It was partly because the unemployment rate in the Middle East is so high,” explains John O’Leary, who is a member of the QS advisory board. “But it was also because the response rate to the employer survey was high.”

Others think that dependence on surveys is a major weakness of the QS rankings and enough to question whether they are meaningful. “I have no confidence in QS rankings,” says Philip Altbach, the director of Boston College’s Center for International Higher Education. “The more you rely on reputational ranking, the more unreliable you are,” says Altbach, “And QS is the king of reputation-based metrics.” He explained that survey participants could be biased in favor of an institution they have a connection with. Graduates and professors at any institution are unlikely to name a rival institution as better than theirs, says Altbach.

QS says that the Academic Reputation Index is the component of its rankings that “attracts the greatest interest and scrutiny” and that sets it apart from other rankings. The company ran into a problem that Arab higher education is notorious for: Many institutions either do not have data or do not give it out. O’Leary adds that many universities were not able to provide the information to be considered in the QS rankings. “Only 194 had enough data to be evaluated and 100 were included,” he says.

The secretary general of the Association of Arab Universities, Sultan T. Abu-Orabi thinks that some universities in the region may choose not to supply data to QS because they believe the ranking of universities has become too much of a business. “It is commercialized and that’s dangerous because many universities would like to participate but don’t because of this,” says Abu-Orabi. His association is considering the development of its own rankings. The QS rankings include an additional “QS stars” category, which evaluates universities in more detail using 12 variables. But an institution has to pay a fee to be appraised with QS stars. O’Leary says that participation in the stars does not effect the overall placement of a university in the top 100 ranking.

Altbach worries that universities who want to move up the rankings may be less concerned with teaching quality because it isn’t considered by the evaluations, chiefly because no one has come up with a suitable means of measuring it yet. And quality teaching is what many education experts say that Arab higher education needs. “Larger and wealthier countries like Saudi Arabia need research-driven universities to be part of the knowledge economy,” says Altbach, “But poorer countries like Yemen shouldn’t focus on rankings because they distract from non-metric services like teaching.”

(End of article)

[akoo1]

It's beneath any Western agency to treat ME universities like they would U.S. universities.

Exactly what is this supposed to mean?