LONDON—In a poll taken during the Middle East Education Thought Leadership Forum this week, the 2,000 educators attending in person and online voted 7 to 1 in favour of an Arab university ranking system.
In a debate before Thursday’s vote, Bibi Alajmi, graduate programme director at Kuwait University, and Karim Seghir, chancellor of Ajman University, in the United Arab Emirates, spoke for a unique Arab ranking system.
Ursula El Hage, director of the entrepreneurship centre and the Career Placement Office at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and Ghassan Aouad, president of the Applied Science University, in Bahrain, spoke against.
Ashwin Fernandes, regional director of QS Quacquarelli Symonds the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, moderated the debate. QS Quacquarelli Symonds is one of several major producers of global rankings of universities.