Two Saudi universities did best among institutions in the Arab world included in the latest classification of engineering programmes by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and King Abdulaziz University each had eight programmes among the top 100 worldwide in the 22 engineering subjects ranked. Egyptian universities were the region’s next most successful.
Institutions in the Arab region also fared well in the rankings of medical science programmes, led by the American University of Beirut’s top-100 placing in nursing.
Engineering and medical sciences are just two of the five subject areas included the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s annual Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. The others are life sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences.
The consultancy is best known for its Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, which is one of the most prominent of more than 20 global rankings of universities published each year. Others include the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The 2022 edition of ShanghaiRanking’s academic subject rankings, published July 19, evaluated programmes in a total of 54 subjects at more than 1,800 universities worldwide. The engineering and medical sciences listings include 197 programmes at 49 universities in 12 Arab countries.
The rankings’ methodology uses a range of academic indicators and third-party data to measure programmes’ performance. The indicators include research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality, and international academic awards. Some of those metrics are based on survey in which more than 1,000 professors participated.
Following are details on how institutions in the Arab region fared in individual subject areas of engineering and medical sciences.
Engineering Disciplines
The 2022 listings include 129 engineering programmes at 31 universities in nine Arab countries.
Energy Science and Engineering
The best ranking for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was in Energy Science and Engineering, where it placed 15th among the 400 institutions ranked. King Abdulaziz University was in a group ranked 51-75, followed by Egypt’s Tanta University, in the 151-200 group.
The next group (201-300) included seven Arab universities: Qatar’s Hamad bin Khalifa University and Qatar University; Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), King Saud University, and Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University; and the United Arab Emirates’ Khalifa University and University of Sharjah.
Six Egyptian and Saudi universities were in a band ranked 301-400 band: Ain Shams University, Assiut University, Benha University, Cairo University, Zagazig University, and King Khalid University.