Job Discussion Forums

[Noor]

[ Friday, 31 July 2009 ]
Reaching a wider academic audience
Saudi university among The World's Best 200

A renowned university in Saudi Arabia entered the club of the world's best 200 academic institutions according to the Spanish international classification system "Webometrics," which also ranked the university as the first in Arab and Islamic Worlds for web visibility.

King Saud University (KSU) ranked 197 worldwide and the first in the Arab and Islamic university world for its Internet dissemination of scientific knowledge, reaching a wider audience of researchers and institutions with its advanced web policy, according to the Webometrics Ranking of World's Universities.

King Saud University jumped from 3259th place in 2007 to 292nd place in 2009

In 2007 KSU occupied the 3259th place, and in July 2008 it came in at the 380th place, finally reaching the 292nd place in 2009 in an unprecedented jump for an Arab and Islamic university ever. For Asia, KSU was the 21st.

KSU's record achievement was attributed to its diversified development scheme that aimed to advance its nano program and satellite labs as well as its renowned recruitment policy that allows for partnering with the best scientists including Nobel laureates.

Following KSU, four other Saudi universities occupied the top five placements with Cairo University coming in at the 6th place.

Webometrics is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research project devoted to the quantitative analysis of the Internet and Web contents specially those related to the processes of generating scholarly communication of scientific knowledge.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/07/31/80383.html

[Stephen Jones]

From the horse's mouth.
http://www.webometrics.info/

The overall ranking of Asia is influenced by the good performance of Taiwan and Saudi universities (which are excessively focusing on web performance with search engines oriented strategies). Meanwhile, Korean universities are below expected positions (their contents are mostly oriented to students, usually in local language and using duplicate web domains, which is still a common practice in UK too).

[freesoul]

quantitative analysis of the Spanish Webometrics is not 100% correct. Have a google on KSU and look up the doc. they publish on their website; and you will be surprised with how many BS docs are there. They are basically staff CVs, half-filled A4 pages and sometimes blank ones.

I would have to admit here that they did publish some valuable docs on their website, not to mention the publishing campaign they have launched on google knol. This has surely pushed their ranking up. Could it be a deliberate move?

This is why qualitative research is best known for its capability of offering a rich and in-depth insight of the content of a researched issue.

[bollidarling]

Irrespective of everything that has gone before on this post it must be remembered that KSU IS NOT the KSU Preparatory Programme that has received so much negative criticism on this site. It is the KSU Preparatory Programme that employs EFL Teachers NOT KSU as such.

Make sure you are comparing apples with apples and not pears.

[12 Monkeys]

Hi Noor.

So your point is????????

[huntjuliehunt]

What does that Spanish website know about KSU? Students at KSU, themselves, state that there are private universities in Saudi Arabia more highly regarded.

[Sheikh N Bake]

Even the British Times Higher Education Supplement ranking is full of s**t. My first master's was in higher-education administration and it appears to me that they don't know anything about the US university system, despite the fact that 7 of their top 10 listings are US institutions, including #1 and #2. For one thing, they ignore the prestigious liberal arts colleges--which are in fact universities, even if they don't concentrate on publish-or-perish. And it's odd to me that they count the number of international students as an important ranking factor. In that case, Miami-Dade Community College should find itself in the top 200 if they ever start offering BA degrees, since they enroll some 5,000 or more foreign students.

[trapezius]

This sudden jump in ranking says nothing about the quality of professors, academics, students, facilities, etc.

In other words, it is meaningless.

It would be impossible for KSU (or any other Saudi uni for that matter, save maybe KFUPM) to be in the top 200 in thw world in terms of quality of education for at least a few centuries.

[Citizenkane]

I agree with Trap.

Education in the Gulf is in its infancy. It would be silly to expect colleges here to be anywhere near world class at any time in the foreseeable future.

[EFLUndercover]

I would disagree with the statement that Gulf education is in its infancy. It's rather in a 'state of confusion'. With so many outsiders running their programs yearly like a revolving door, it's a wonder if students are able to learn anything at all.

They are being taught by foreigners in a language that is foreign and graduating under the illusion that they have actually learned something.

[veiledsentiments]

Which is why I have always described the system as "smoke and mirrors"

VS