Indicators of Institutional and Program Ranking of Universities with Reference to the Arab World

Abstract

Currently, for a population of circa 400 million in the Arab world, there are 700 public and private universities in the Arab world with an enrollment of 13 million students and 250,000 academic staff (faculty). The 300 private universities accommodate 30% of the student enrollment, compared with 50% in Japan, 30% in Europe 30%, and 20% in the U.S.

Ranking is controversial and biased in favor of research in the natural and medical sciences with less emphasis on engineering and social sciences, and largely ignore the humanities, and favor publications in English.

Academic rankings of world universities vary in the criteria used for excellence. Shanghai Tiao Tong university ranking “Academic Ranking of World Universities” (ARWU), established in 2003, was based on two indicators: published papers in top journals and staff winning high awards.

ARWU ranks 500 top world universities. Institutions are ranked in 52 subjects across natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences using a minimum standard of publication threshold. It uses four criteria: quality of education (10%), quality of faculty (20%), research output (60%), and per capita academic performance (10%).

Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE) started with Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) in 2004 and split later with Thomson Reuters in 2009. Along with ARWU and QS world universities rankings, THE are the three most influential international university rankings.

THE uses 13 indicators grouped under five categories: teaching (30%), research (30%), citation-research impact (32.5%), international collaboration (5%), and innovation (2.5%).

The QS ranking uses six indicators: academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty-student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), proportion of international students (5%), and proportion of international faculty (5%).

Jordan Ranking for universities which was developed recently by the Higher Education Commission, is based on giving the university an overall ranking score in respect to five major performance indicators: teaching and learning (score 250), scientific research (score 250), internationalization (score 150), quality of graduates (score 200), and academic accreditation (score 150).

The introduction of university rankings has created competition for global standing, quality graduates, and research outputs.