Arab University Rankings 2022: results announced

Browse the full results of the Arab University Rankings 2022

Universities in Saudi Arabia take five of the top 10 spots in the second year of Times Higher Education's Arab University Rankings, published today. King Abdulaziz University takes the number one spot over 168 other institutions from across the region to claim the crown, for the second year in a row.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) places second, followed by Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (fourth), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (sixth) and King Saud University (joint seventh) – among a total of 32 Saudi universities in the rankings.

The average overall score for Saudi Arabian universities is 59.3. The region excels in international outlook – which measures the proportion of international students, the proportion of international staff, international co-authorship and collaboration within the Arab world – with an average score of 75.2. The country also scores highly for citations, with an average of 74.7.

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Egypt also performs well, with an average overall score just beating Saudi Arabia at 59.6, based on 34 universities. The country has one university in the top 10, Zewail City of Science and Technology, which comes in at number 10.

Lebanon is a surprisingly good performer, too; the country has the second highest average score at 69.8, based on countries with five or more universities ranked. While there are only five Lebanese universities featured in the ranking, their average score for teaching is particularly high, at 82.9. The highest ranked institution is Beirut Arab University, just missing out on the top 10 at number 11.

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With an average overall score of 71.2, the United Arab Emirates has the highest of the region. Its top-ranking university is Khalifa University (fifth), followed by the United Arab Emirates University (joint seventh) and the University of Sharjah (ninth).

This year saw a large increase in the number of institutions taking part in the ranking: 169, up from 125 last year. The Arab University Rankings is based on the same comprehensive table as the World University Ranking, measuring research-intensive universities across all their core missions (teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook) but has some important adjustments to reflect the features of universities in the Arab region.

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Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at Times Higher Education, said: “The Arab world was a real success story in the THE World University Rankings published last month, with universities across the region, especially those in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, surging up the global list, driven primarily by improvements in research activity. But it is important to examine and to benchmark the region’s universities with more depth and more focus, taking into account more local context and looking beyond only those universities making a mark on the world stage. This second edition of the Arab University Rankings does just that. We now have 169 universities across the Arab world who have actively chosen to join the rankings – willing to share data to support their strategic benchmarking and to join a growing community in the region committed to deploying data insights to drive further improvement.”

Arab University Rankings 2022 Top 10

rosa.ellis@timeshighereducation.com