Lebanon's American University of Beirut tops this year's QS University Rankings for the Arab Region, released by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a global higher education analyst, today.

 

The table is the most extensive guide to the performance of 100 universities in 15 Arabic-speaking countries. 

 

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), which was the top ranking university last year, takes the second spot this year.

 

Saudi Arabia is still home to three of the region's top four universities. King Saud University is placed third and King Abdul Aziz University is fourth on the list.

 

United Arab Emirates University enters the top five, rising from 6th to 5th. There is one new entrant into the top ten: Oman's Sultan Qaboos University (ranked10th).

 

Others in the top 10 on the list are: American University of Cairo (6th); Qatar Univerity (7th); American University of Sharjah (8th) and University of Jordan (9th).

 

Saudi Arabia is also the most-represented nation in the rankings, with 21 universities among the top 100. It is followed by Egypt and Jordan (13 universities each), the United Arab Emirates (12 universities), Iraq (11 universities), and Lebanon (8 universities).

 

QS uses a unique methodology to calculate this ranking. The methodology is designed to account for the unique challenges facing the region's universities, and features nine indicators. These indicators are: 1. Academic reputation; 2. Employer reputation; 3. Faculty/student ratio; 4. Citations per faculty; 5. Citations per paper; 6. International faculty ratio; 7. Staff with PhD; 8. International student ratio; 9. Web impact. - TradeArabia News Service