The Lens

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The QS World University Rankings: Arab Region 2024 recently launched in October, evaluating a record 223 institutions spanning 18 Arab countries.

This year, Egypt is the most represented country of the region, with 36 featured universities, followed by Saudi Arabia (34) and Iraq (24). Within the top 10 list, institutions in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are featured the most, while Qatar, Lebanon, Oman and Jordan are represented by one institution each.

There are also more universities within the top 10 with impressive results in certain areas. For instance, Khalifa University of Science and Technology scored 99.7 in the category of ‘Faculty/Student’ and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) scored a perfect 100 in ‘Academic Reputation’, ‘Employer Reputation’, and ‘Citations per paper’.

A total of 32 universities are featured in the rankings for the first time ever, with excellent scores in various indicators. Hamad Bin Khalifa University (ranked 13th) with 100 in ‘Faculty/Student’, ‘Citations per paper’, ‘Paper’s per faculty’, ‘Staff with PhD’, ‘International faculty’ and ‘International students’.

QS Senior Vice President Ben Sowter notes that the Arab Region continues to grow its standing in academia. "Its blossoming international partnerships and increasingly high-impact, influential research nourish an ever-growing international reputation," he says. Sowter adds that this year’s rankings is a reflection of "the intensifying competition within the region for higher education excellence and offering independent and detailed lenses through which its prospective students, faculty and policymakers can make data-informed decisions and benchmark success". Find out more about the methodology of the rankings here.