Qatar University (QU) has been ranked among the top 600 universities in the world in the recent THE (Times Higher Education) World University Rankings 2016/17. QU was ranked in the range of 501-600 most highly ranked universities.

This achievement consolidates QU’s recent improvement results in rankings as the institution has been ranked #393 in the QS World University Rankings 2016/17 and #49 in the QS Top 50 under 50 ranking among the best young universities in the world.

The THE World University Rankings are the only global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. They use 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas: Teaching -the learning environment (30%), Research - volume, income and reputation (30%), Citations - research influence (30%), International outlook -staff, students and research (7.5%), and Industry income -knowledge transfer (2.5%).

QU president Dr Hassan al-Derham said, “Being selected among the top universities in the world is an important milestone to QU at a time when the institution is becoming a driver of higher education and research quality in the region. QU’s improvement in the rankings is all the more commendable this year as the list of assessed universities increased since last year with 180 universities added to the list, however QU’s rank continued to improve.’

“This comes as result of the organisation’s ongoing commitment to providing excellent academic and research outcomes, and to producing competent and highly skilled graduates who will meet the needs of the local and regional labor market. We look forward to consistently increasing our positioning in the international arena,” he continued.

THE Rankings editor Phil Baty said, “Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings are the most comprehensive and the most robust global university rankings. They employ 13 separate performance indicators across the full range of a university’s core missions, including teaching, research and knowledge transfer, and all data and calculations are subjected to rigorous independent audit.”

“There are understood to be more than 20,000 higher education institutions in the world, so for Qatar University to make the top 600 ranked by Times Higher Education is an outstanding achievement to be celebrated. Qatar University is one of the world’s most international universities-ensuring that it benefits from a powerful network of international research collaborations and a talent pool well beyond the borders of Qatar. This all bodes well for its future in the rankings too,” he added.