UAE University is country's top institution, Times Higher Education world ranking reveals

Khalifa University slips from its number one ranking for the first time

California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, is renowned for its engineering and natural science schools. It counts tycoon and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes and the legendary filmmaker Frank Capra among its alumni. It is home to just 2,000 students, making it one of the smallest major universities. Alamy Stock Photo

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford was founded in 1885 by Jane and Leland Stanford. Its alumni boasts 19 Nobel laureates and 17 astronauts. Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the US, was part of the first class. Alamy Stock Photo

Based in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT is among the world's best technology universities, offering digital learning, sustainable energy, big data, human health and more. It is home to about 1,000 faculty members and more than 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students. MIT says its alumni-founded companies have created 4.6 million jobs, generating nearly $2 trillion in annual revenues. Taken together, this ‘MIT Nation’ is equivalent, it is claimed, to the 10th-largest economy in the world. Alamy Stock Photo

Dating back to 1636, Harvard is the oldest university in the US and has connections to more than 30 heads of state. Situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, its 5,000-acre campus houses 12 degree-granting schools and about three-quarters of its roughly 22,000 students are postgrads. Its renowned medical school is connected to 10 hospitals at which students get hands-on experience. Harvard boasts the largest academic library in the world, with 20.4 million volumes and 10 million photographs. Alamy Stock Photo

The ultimate Ivy League university, Princeton's park-like New Jersey campus is home to about 10,000 students. Unusually, it offers residential accommodation to all of its undergraduates across all four years of study, with 98 per cent of its 10,000 students living on site. Its prestigious alumni include Michelle Obama, actor Jimmy Stewart and the economist Paul Krugman. Alamy Stock Photo

Based in New Haven Connecticut, Yale dates back to 1701 and has educated five US presidents: William Howard Taft, Gerald Ford, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush. Unusually for the US, students are housed in residential colleges on the model of Oxford and Cambridge. Many of its Yale's buildings date back to the 18th century Alamy Stock Photo

Home to the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation, University of Chicago is located on a 200-acre campus in the city's Hyde Park neighbourhood, near Lake Michigan. Known as UChicago, it boasts about 16,000 undergrads and postgrads. Its business school is ranked as No1 in the world by The Economist, while the New York Times found its graduates were among the most sought after in the corporate world. Alamy

In the top spot for the fourth year is Oxford university, recognisable worldwide for its medieval skyline. It boasts 39 separate colleges and six private hall - some of the most famous are Christ Church, Balliol College and Magdalen - offering virtually every subject in academic study to its 24,000 students. Over the centuries successful graduates have bequeathed fortunes to individual colleges, meaning some boast endowments of hundreds of millions of pounds each. Alamy

Established by King Henry III in 1231, like Oxford, Cambridge is one of two ancient seats of learning. It is home to about 20,000 students and is recognisable for the 'punts' or boats that sail up and down its river. Many of its brightest technology graduates go on to work in start-ups in a high-tech business district known as 'Silicon Fen'. AFP

Imperial College excels in science, engineering, medicine and business and many of its 15,000 students per year go on to top jobs in industry. Famous alumni include science fiction author HG Wells, Queen guitarist Brian May, and former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. Imperial’s most notable landmark is the Queen's Tower, a remainder of the Imperial Institute, built to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. Alamy Stock Photo

United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain has been ranked as the top university in the country, according to a global ranking report.

The UAE’s former number one education institute, Khalifa University, slipped to second place.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020, released on Wednesday, listed UAEU in the 301-350 bracket, indicating an improvement from the university’s 351-400 position last year.

Meanwhile, Khalifa University dropped in ranking slightly, from the 301-350 bracket last year to 351-400 this year.

In its 16th year, the list, which is compiled annually by Times Higher Education, includes more than 1,300 universities from 91 countries, making it the largest higher education analysis to date.

UAEU had been steadily improving in the THE ranking for years, jumping from the 501-600 bracket in 2017 to the 351-400 band last year.

Prof Mohamed Albaili, vice chancellor of UAEU, said the improvement was a result of the university’s accredited programmes, scientific research and future studies.

“Our aspiration is for UAEU to become ‘the University of the Future’ … by encouraging and supporting excellence and creativity in the fields of scientific research and technology,” he said.

“This achievement is a result of the outstanding efforts of our faculty, researchers, staff and students, all working as one team. The University will continue in its pursuit of excellence to be among the top 200 universities in the world.”

Saeed Ghobash, chancellor of UAEU, echoed Prof Albaili’s statements, saying the university aimed to hold on to its top position.

“UAEU will continue to develop its graduate studies programs to ensure their high quality, to meet the needs of the society and to be one of the best research and academic universities,” Mr Ghobash said.

Khalifa University — which was founded in 2007 following a decree from President Sheikh Khalifa — was named the top UAE university by the THE world rankings in 2016, after merging with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and the Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi. The university then shot up to the 301-350 bracket in 2017 after being ranked in the 501-600 band the year before.

Four institutions from the Emirates were included in the THE World University Rankings this year, the same number since 2018, despite a significant overall increase in the number of universities included.

University of Sharjah made a big leap, rising from 801-1000 last year to 601-800 this year.

American University of Sharjah also made the list, ranking in the same position as the year prior – in the 801-1000 band.

UAEU and Khalifa University consistently rank highly within the Middle East and Asia. Both were listed among the top 50 in Asia for the first time in the THE Asia University Rankings 2019 in May.

The rankings placed four of the country's universities in its list of the best 417 institutes across the region.

Khalifa University, which was already in the top 50, remained the Emirates' top-ranked institute, rising four spots to position 28.

UAE University jumped from 71 to 49, giving the country two top 50 entries for the first time.

Saudi Arabia also had a strong showing in the global list released on Wednesday with two universities making the regional top five: King Abdulaziz University and Alfaisal University respectively. The Kingdom had seven universities included in the Mena regional table.

The Mena region increased its representation from 21 to 108 institutions in total this year but experts said there was more yet to be done.

"The investment being made by many countries in the Mena region is slowly but surely allowing their universities to offer funding and facilities to rival the rest of the world," said Elli Bothwell, THE rankings editor.

“In many cases, the next challenge is to make use of these resources to provide a culture of academic excellence and rigorous standards.”

Globally, the University of Oxford maintained its top spot for the fourth year in a row, with rival University of Cambridge dropping to third place behind the California Institute of Technology. Switzerland was the only country outside the UK and North America to breach the top 20, with ETH Zurich coming in joint 13th place, down two from last year.

The THE World University Rankings judges research-intensive universities across each of their core missions: teaching; research; citations; industry income (knowledge transfer); and international outlook (staff, students, research).