Qatar University (QU) was named number one among 200 institutions worldwide in the international outlook indicator in the overall Times Higher Education World University Rankings list (THE-WUR) 2015-16.  
This was announced by QU yesterday, based on a news brief on the THE’s official online forum. The international outlook indicator considers the proportion of an institution’s international staff, international students, and research papers co-published with at least one author from another country.
THE used the “international outlook” indicator of the WUR to create the list and all institutions in the top 800 of the ranking were considered, THE-WUR editor and THE editor-at-large Phil Baty said.
On international collaboration, QU currently holds 32.9% of the overall percentage (70%) of institutions in Qatar on international collaboration, which means that papers emerging from QU that are co-authored with international researchers make up one-third of all internationally-collaborated papers from Qatar as a whole. In the September 2015 SciVal Analysis of Scopus Data, QU was shown to top the chart of international institutions in international collaboration.
Commenting on the recent achievement, QU president Dr Hassan Rashid al-Derham pointed to several key factors – QU’s vibrant culture of collaborative research, its healthy research budget and ambitious research roadmap targeting local, regional and international issues, along with the State of Qatar’s stated commitment to research and to steering the country towards a knowledge-based economy.
“International collaboration stands at the core of our research strategy in which we encourage our researchers towards a culture of knowledge-sharing in seeking solutions to problems within their society and beyond,” he stated.
Dr al-Derham pointed out that QU’s ever-increasing research efforts have resulted in over 1,500 co-authored publications from 718 collaborating institutes and these have achieved top funding success under the National Priorities Research Programme of the Qatar National Research Fund.
“This result is a proud moment for QU and a boost for the environment of robust collaborative research that contributes to positioning the university as a leader in academic and research excellence in the GCC region. The attraction of high-qualified faculty and researchers from all over the world also contributed to strengthening the university’s global dimension, and to establishing solid fundamentals for diversification and knowledge enhancement.”
Baty observed that an institution’s global outlook is one of the key markers of a prestigious university.
“The top institutions hire faculty from all over the world, attract students from a global market of top talent and collaborate with leading departments wherever they happen to be based. It is great news that Qatar University is the topmost international universities in the world. It is a sign of great potential, competitiveness and dynamism.”