RIYADH — Seven Saudi universities have been listed among the world's top 1,000 universities in the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), which is also known as Shanghai Ranking. The number of Saudi universities which found a place in the Shanghai Ranking shot up from four in 2019 and six in 2021 to seven in 2022. According to the latest version of the ranking, King Saud University (KSU) of Riyadh and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) of Jeddah secured a place among the world's top 150 universities for the second time in a row. KSU, the topper among the Saudi universities, ranked 121st among the universities globally, while KAU ranked 149th worldwide. King Saud University is 21 places away from the prestigious ranking of the top 100 universities in the world. The ranking revealed progress in the positions of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Taif University, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, in addition to King Khalid University, which entered in the classification among the top 1,000 institutions in the world for the first time last year, while Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University entered the ranking for the first time this year. The ARWU ranking for 2022 was unveiled by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Since 2003, ARWU has been presenting the world's top universities annually based on transparent methodology and objective third-party data. It has been recognized as the precursor of global university rankings and the most trustworthy one. This year, more than 2500 institutions were scrutinized, and the best 1000 universities in the world are published. As a global classification body, ARWU ranks world's universities according to a set of criteria and standards, including the quality of education, the efficiency of faculty members, the outputs of scientific research, and the size of the institution. The results of the ranking confirmed the continuation of educational successes that reflect the efforts that have been made and the excellence achieved by universities in the Kingdom over the past years, which contributed to achieving the strategic objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030. The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is one of the three most important global ranking bodies. Saudi universities have made remarkable advances in the ranking of the other two bodies also. There are 16 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2023, compared to 9 universities in 2019, and 22 universities in the classification of British Times Higher Education compared to three Saudi universities in 2019.
