A third of the universities in the table, which was drawn up by Times Higher Education and measures research impact, are based in Egypt. However, the country has only one institution in the top 10: Beni-Suef 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, which was ninth.?

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have three institutions in the top 30, which was released as THE holds its inaugural in Qatar.

The event includes a consultation on proposals for a full THE ranking for the region, building on the flagship World 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Rankings. This would combine the citation scores from Elsevier¡¯s Scopus database, used for this snapshot, with a wider range of performance metrics.

The top five had been released last month, putting Texas A&M 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ at Qatar in first place ahead of the Lebanese American 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Saudi Arabia¡¯s King Abdulaziz 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ was third, ahead of Qatar 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ and the American 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Beirut.

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The rest of the top 10 includes two Saudi institutions: King Fahd 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Petroleum & Minerals, and King Saud 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, in seventh and eighth respectively.

Morocco¡¯s Cadi Ayyad 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ was sixth, while Jordan¡¯s Hashemite 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ was 10^th.

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Phil Baty, editor of the THE World 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Rankings, said the top 30 gave us ¡°fascinating insight into the research strengths of the MENA region¡± but was ¡°just a snapshot to stimulate wider discussions about the most appropriate metrics for ranking the region¡¯s universities¡±.

¡°°Õ³ó±ð THE World 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Rankings use 13 separate performance indicators to judge institutions across the full range of activities ¨C teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook ¨C and we would like to extend this tried and trusted formula to the MENA region,¡± he said.

¡°°Õ³ó±ð question we are discussing here at the summit in Qatar is what is the appropriate range and balance of metrics to suit the specific missions of MENA institutions, and whether we can develop new indicators specifically for the region.¡±

The top 30 snapshot was calculated using the ratio of the citations received by an institution¡¯s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field.

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Qatar, Lebanon and Morocco each had two universities in the top 30, as did Jordan, Algeria and Tunisia.

To register your institution for the annual data collection round which will allow it to be included in the THE World 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Rankings analyses, please contact: profilerankings@timeshighereducation.com

MENA top 30 snapshot

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