Browse the full results of the Arab University Rankings 2024

Universities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to lead in the Arab world, but countries outside the Gulf are showing increasing strength.

Jordan and Egypt now each have a university in the top 10 for the region, which was previously dominated by countries in the Gulf, the latest ����Vlog Arab University Rankings reveal.

The University of Jordan claims ninth place in the table, up from joint 16th last year, marking the first time the country has been represented in the top 10 since the rankings began in 2021. Jordan has 19 universities ranked, including five in the top 50.

Jordan University of Science and Technology, the country’s second-best performer, has risen from 23rd to joint 21st. Applied Science Private University and Al-Ahliyya Amman University both make considerable jumps from the 91-100 band to positions 25 and 28, respectively. Jordan has the third-highest average overall score (48), as well as the third-highest average score for research quality (70), behind only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (based on countries with more than 10 universities ranked).

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The top universities in the Arab world

Alexander Farley, programme associate for the Middle East programme at the US-based Wilson Center, says Jordan, along with other neighbouring countries, has begun to put more emphasis on improving the quality of higher education.

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“When they opened up investment to the private sector [in the early 1990s], there wasn’t enough attention paid to what the quality standards and accreditation standards were going to be,” he says. Now, however, Jordan is starting to “beef up” quality assurance and improve standards, he adds.

Egypt is now represented in the top 10 by Cairo University in eighth place – a jump of 20 positions from joint 28th last year. This is the first time an Egyptian university has appeared in the top 10 since 2022, when Zewail City of Science and Technology was ranked number 10. On average, the country performs well under the society pillar, which tracks industry income per academic staff as well as participation and performance in the THE Impact Rankings.

The Egyptian higher education system is heavily controlled by the government, Farley explains, which means that the country’s universities “do some things well…but the lack of independence makes it really difficult to achieve in things like publishing in international journals and giving people independence to research”.

While the Gulf no longer has a monopoly on the top 10, Saudi Arabia remains a very strong presence, taking the top three places for the first time, and placing a total of five institutions among the top 10. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a postgraduate-only institution, is ranked number one in the region, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and King Saud University are joint second.

The United Arab Emirates has two institutions in the top 10, down from four last year. The University of Sharjah has fallen from joint fourth to 11th, and Abu Dhabi University has dropped from ninth to 14th. Khalifa University, once again the country’s top performer, has slipped from second position to sixth, while United Arab Emirates University remains at number seven. Even though it might not have the same representation at the top of the table, the UAE’s average overall score, 64, is the highest in the region, based on countries with more than 10 universities ranked, demonstrating the continuing strength of its system.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have the highest average scores for research quality, 84 and 78, respectively. Hanada Taha Thomure, professor of Arabic language education at Zayed University in the UAE, says both countries have “significantly improved their research output in recent years”.

“Saudi Arabia’s focus on research has been driven by its Vision 2030 initiative, leading to increased investment…KAUST, for example, has become a leading research hub, contributing to advances in fields such as energy and nanotechnology. Saudi Arabia’s research output grew rapidly between 2015 and 2020.

“The UAE has also made strides, with institutions like Khalifa University and collaborations such as the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence driving growth in AI and engineering research,” she explains.

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Thomure adds that “both countries have increased funding, built state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and fostered international collaborations, which have fuelled this rise in research productivity”.

Abdeljalil Akkari, professor of intercultural and international dimensions of education at the University of Geneva, says the development of higher education in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE is clear to see. The Gulf countries are “rich and have less demographic pressure” compared with nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco, he adds.

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Karim Sahib/Getty Images

Considering the performance of Arab countries on the world stage, however, the region as a whole still has much room for improvement in terms of higher education outcomes, Akkari believes.

“Graduates of higher education are struggling to get jobs…in most countries, poor or rich,” he says.

While Lebanon has only five universities ranked, it punches above its weight with an average overall score of 58. The Lebanese American University is the nation’s top-ranked institution and once again edges closer to the top 10, claiming 12th position, up from joint 16th last year.

Akkari highlights that “Lebanon played a key role in promoting higher education in the Arab world.”

“It is also a country with strong production of books and other culture industries, such as film and music. It has a strong private sector in higher education with a lot of creativity,” he says.

Farley, however, is less optimistic about the country’s higher education prospects, describing Lebanon as “a system that’s stagnant or struggling under the weight of the financial crisis”.

Elsewhere, Tunisia has 10 universities ranked and an average overall score of 42. Morocco records an average score of 40, based on 14 universities; Iraq has an average score of 38, based on 45 universities (it is now the most represented country in the rankings); and Algeria chalks up an average score of 29, based on 37 ranked institutions.

Syria is ranked for the first time this year, with two institutions. Its top-ranked is Damascus University, in the 161-180 band.

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While many countries in the region are making huge improvements in their higher education systems, experts agree that they still face several challenges: lower than global average spending on higher education, a mismatch with labour market needs, and a shortage of world-class research institutions, to name a few. Moreover, “political instability in countries like Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Palestine, Yemen and Libya has disrupted education infrastructure and led to a massive brain drain”, Thomure says.