London — QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts and compilers of the QS University Rankings, have ranked King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals as the best university in the Arab region for a second consecutive year, a press statement announced on Monday. The rankings also illustrate that Saudi Arabia's higher education system remains the region's strongest. The third edition of the QS University Rankings: Arab Region also lists King Saud University on 3rd place in the region, King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) on 4th, Umm Al-Qura University on 18th. A total of 19 Saudi universities feature in the published rankings, with 10 of those in the top 50. This is more than any other featured nation. Saudi Arabia's universities are the region's second-most-successful in recruiting international faculty members. Nine of their 19 ranked universities achieve the benchmark top-weighted score of 100 in QS's international faculty metric, second only to the United Arab Emirates. Two of their universities are among the region's top 10 for research impact: King Fahd University ranks 5th for citations per paper, while Najran University (57th overall) ranks 6th for this metric. A total of 15 nations from the Arab region provide the 100 ranked universities. The QS University Rankings: Arab Region are designed to complement the overall QS University Rankings and QS University Rankings by Subject by using a unique methodology. This unique methodology measures universities according to nine metrics, acknowledging the particular challenges and opportunities universities must face within their own region in order to become regionally – and globally – mobile. It also aims to illuminate excellence achieved by universities that are making impact on a regional, if not yet a global, level. The full methodology can be found here.
