The Brief
The state of higher ed in the Middle East
In late February, the 2024 QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East will take place in Abu Dhabi. Focussed on "Cultures of innovation: Elevating quality education for a thriving Middle East", the summit will explore areas of critical importance to the region.
Understanding where a region finds itself can help guide where it needs to go.
Improving in the rankings
In the most recent QS World University Rankings, published in July 2023, 78 universities from the Arab region were featured, the largest number to date.
When taking into consideration the average overall score a country receives, Middle Eastern Institutions are holding their own on the global stage. Combining all of the indicators, such as academic reputation, citations per faculty, international student ratios and employer reputation, the overall score a university receives determines its rank. The top ranked institutional overall, MIT in the US, has an overall score of 100; the second ranked University of Cambridge in the UK has an overall score of 99.2, and so on.
Only the top 600 universities in the QS World University Rankings are released publicly, but they give an indication of just how competitive this grouping is. The median of all scores, which range from 19.8 to 100 is 34.55.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Lebanon, Oman and particularly Qatar are the standouts of the region by average score, while Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Morocco have all seen steady year-on-year-on-year increases.
Research opportunities
A big opportunity for Middle Eastern universities is in their research collaboration. While there are some key outliers, compared to other regions, citations per faculty remain low and only slightly higher than Latin American institutions.
The region's position sits in contrast to the anecdotal reputation of its research, as well as experts understanding of the work that's being undertaken.
Graduate Employability
An important element of studying at university is finding employment. To understand this, the QS World University Rankings measure employer reputation and employment outcomes. Employer reputation takes into consideration the thoughts and views of respondents from the QS Employer Survey, who are asked to nominate up to 10 domestic institutions and 30 international institutions as being the best for producing relevant graduates.
Employment outcomes considers the proportion of graduates employed within 15 months of completing their studies as well as those who have had considerable impact, for example, being listed on the Forbes 30 under 30.
Universities in the Middle East show a tendency towards employment outcomes exceeding their reputation among employers. Of the 78 Arab region universities in the QS World University Rankings 2024, more than half had better employment outcomes, highlighting that employer reputation is only one facet of preparing students for the workforce.
There are also significant outliers. Within the rankings, 20 Middle Eastern universities had outcomes more than twice that of their reputation, with two registering outcome scores ten times that of their reputation (albeit from small bases).
Learn more at the 2024 QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East on 27-29 February in Abu Dhabi and online, hosted by the American University of Ras Al Khaimah. Register here.