Alexandria University ranked 147 worldwide
This year’s THE ranking was a surprising boost for the Egyptian academia. Alexandria University from Egypt is ranked 147 worldwide. This is higher than many of the European universities that Egyptians go to do their PhDs in. So probably from now on Egyptians should try to get scholarships in Alexandria University!
Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking is one of three major university rankings, the other two are ARWU and USNews.
While the ranking took into consideration many factors of evaluation like learning environment and industry income, Alexandria’s one main boost came from research influence as measured by citations.
The only regional competitors that got higher ranks than Alexandria University are University of Cape Town from South Africa, which is ranked 107, and Bilkent University from Turkey, which is ranked 112. Turkey also has another university in the top 200, which is Middle East Technical University, ranked 183. Otherwise, no other Mideastern or African universities showed up in the ranking list.
In 2009, Cairo University was the only Egyptian university that appeared in THE ranking, and was ranked in the range 401-500. That was unsatisfactory compared to regional competitors: 4 Arab universities, 4 Israeli universities, 1 Turkish university, and 1 Iranian university were in top 400.
Then, a final comment that everybody knows but is worth mentioning again: University ranking is not everything. You can never capture the quality of a whole institution in a single number. But it can be a good rough estimate of the current direction in which the institution is heading!
