The UAE University Is 'Arab World's Leading College'

First Published:

Sunday 8 December, 2013

The UAE University has been ranked as the top university in the Arab world, according to a survey just published by The Times Higher Education publication.

The study is the first of its kind to rate third level establishments in emerging economies around the world including the so-called BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Chinese institutions dominated the top places but the UAE University came in at 76th place out of 100 colleges ranked. It finished three places ahead of the highly-rated American University of Sharjah. Egypt had three universities rated below the two UAE colleges and a Moroccan college also featured in the top 100.

Speaking about the reason behind the compilation of this survey, Phil Baty editor of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings said:

“With global rankings so heavily dominated by the rich world, there is a growing demand for the research to reflect more on local or economic contexts, and an increasing appetite from an ever-growing range of countries and institutions to benchmark themselves against the world’s very best, using the clear global data definitions developed with our rankings data partner, Thomson Reuters, and based on the tough but trusted global standards set by the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings,” said Baty.

The overall World University Rankings, published each October, are heavily dominated by the US (which takes 77 of the world’s top 200 universities), and the developed world. Only five institutions from the 22 emerging economies appear in the top 200 of the overall rankings, so the new rankings will provide valuable, rich data on a much wider group of institutions from a wider range of countries.

Speaking to local media the UAE University's Vice Chancellor, Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, said the university had continuously occupied leading ranks among world universities and had made significant strides in the past few years, which had earned it prominent Arab and world positions in different higher education tables.