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Tribune News Network
Doha
QATAR University (QU) has recently achieved a respectable place in several important world university rankings as well as regional university rankings.
For example, in the Round University Rankings (RUR) released in April, QU ranked 360th worldwide while in Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2015/16 released this month, the university was placed in the range of 481-490 most highly ranked universities.
Similarly, in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015/16, QU figured in the range of 601-800 top universities.
In Asia university rankings, QU was placed in the range of 121-130 in THE Asia University Rankings 2016, and achieved No 1 in the International Outlook indicator in the overall THE World University Rankings list (THE-WUR) 2015-16. It was also ranked 13th worldwide on the International Diversity indicator in the Round University Rankings (RUR).
In the Arab region university rankings, the university got 9th place in QS Arab Region University Rankings 2016, achieving an average of 82.3 percent. This achievement underlines QU's continuous advancement in its regional standing as the organisation achieved 11th place in 2015 and 16th place in 2014. In this context, QU was also ranked No 1 in the Arab region in the Round University Rankings (RUR) and No 24 in the US News rankings.
The university was also named #90 in the Times Higher Education (THE) BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016 making it one of the top 200 institutions in the 48 countries included in the rankings. The announcement was made by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings on November 26.
Commenting on these significant achievements, Qatar University president Dr Hassan Rashid al Derham said:"They come at a time when QU graduated its 39th batch of students, and are a testament of the high-quality education that the university offers to the community.
"Since its inception, QU has graduated over 41,000 students, and has been successful in its accreditation initiatives earning the endorsement of numerous leading international accrediting bodies for its colleges and academic programmes. And over the last 10 years, the organisation has strengthened its research capacity and continued to advance its standing in the international arena among the top universities in the world achieving a number of rankings successes."
The divergence of QU position in these rankings is due to the difference in the criteria and sources used by the ranking institutions. The QS University Rankings for the Arab region are developed with the aim to reflect specific challenges and priorities for institutions in the region.
The criteria include: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, web impact, proportion of international faculty, proportion of international students, proportion of staff with PhD, citations per paper from Scopus, and papers per faculty from Scopus. QS rankings are supported by Elsevier Scopus while RUR rankings data are provided by Thomson Reuters.
Commenting on the divergence of QU position in these rankings, QU VP & Chief Academic Officer Dr Mazen Hasna said:"Over the last years, QU has made a huge progress in various areas, especially in research which had a positive impact on its performance in university rankings. The divergence of QU position in these rankings is due to the difference in the criteria, sources and rankings data used by the ranking institutions, as well as the performance of the academic institutions."
