DOHA: Qatar University (QU) has been ranked 3rd among the best universities in the Arab world and 52nd out of the top 350 institutions from 25 countries in Asia in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2018.
The announcement was made on February 6 on the website of THE. This achievement highlights QU’s continuous efforts to promote its standing among the top universities in Asia as the University was ranked 77th in the 2017 edition.
In calculating the top universities in Asia, the THE Asia University Rankings 2018 used the same 13 performance indicators as the THE World University Rankings, but they are re-calibrated to reflect the priorities of Asian institutions and to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments. The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching - the learning environment (25%), Research - volume, income and reputation (30%), Citations - research influence (30%), International Outlook - staff, students and research (7.5%), and Industry Income - knowledge transfer (7.5%).
Commenting on the achievement, QU President Dr Hassan Al Derham said: “We are proud of QU being ranked 52nd in THE Asia University Rankings 2018. This achievement highlights the university’s continuous advancement in its regional standing as it achieved 77th place in 2017. As Qatar’s first higher education institution, QU has rigorously pursued educational excellence and the highest quality research.”
“The university is committed to deliver the best possible education to its students and to inspire them to achieve their potential.”
“Through its world-class graduate and postgraduate programmes, QU has earned good reputation as one of the most prestigious universities in the region. The university has a growing number of master’s and PhD programmes and an ambitious research capability which focuses on national development priorities.”
“QU will continue in its efforts to address relevant local and regional challenges, advance knowledge and contribute actively to the needs and aspirations of society.
To achieve this, the university developed a new five-year strategy (2018-2022), which will map out the routes to achieving continuing performance excellence and build on its achievements in key areas of education, research, institution and engagement,” QU President said.
He added: “The new strategy also focuses on the importance of providing academic and research programmes that align with international standards and with the principles of the Arabic and Islamic culture and identity. We aim to prepare distinguished national leaders and to benefit from QU’s resources to develop the national human capital towards building a knowledge-based economy.”
QU Scholarships and Partnerships Office Director,Cesar Wazen said: “The ranking results prove that the resources devoted to research (income and PhD students) are increasing while QU is holding the quantity of research output steady thus the quality goes up, leading to our biggest gain being in citation impact.
Even in the current difficult times inflicted by the ongoing Gulf crisis, preceded by the drop in oil prices, resources were not affected.”
