Cesar Wazen, Director of International Affairs Office, Qatar University
Doha: Qatar University has maintained its ranking among the top 250 universities in the world in the QS2022 ranking, and the best 350 universities in the world in the THE2022 ranking. QU improved by 21 places in the QS ranking (from 245 to 224).
Cesar Wazen (pictured), Director of International Affairs Office at Qatar University (QU), said that Qatar University has made important strides in international rankings from the two most important agencies in this field, namely ‘Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) and ‘Times Higher Education.’
According to Wazen, university ranking is not a goal in itself, but QU relies on it to benchmark performance and work review.
“Qatar University’s strategy is based on reflecting the true level of the institution in worldwide rankings. Rather than an end in itself, it is a matter of responsibility towards its community especially given the strong support the university gets from the Qatari government,” Wazen said.
“As a result, Qatar University established a direct link with ranking agencies and is an active participant in worldwide debates regarding ranking standards, and improving the indicators of excellence reflecting higher education quality in the MENA region as a whole and Qatar in particular.”
He noted that the university’s focus on QS and Times Higher education rankings due to their inclusive and holistic approach among more than 20 existing rankings, while the “Shanghai” ranking is also monitored by QU.
“Both rankings are based on measurable performance metrics, enabling young universities to compete with older and prestigious institutions due to the variety of indicators universities are invited to submit data for. The Shanghai ranking on the other hand, while more selective, dedicates more than 90% of its score to research output data extracted from databases. As a result, historically prestigious universities, producing high quality research in English language for more than decades are favored at the expense of younger and/or traditional comprehensive universities (a common trait for universities in the Arab Region, save some exceptions).
“Nonetheless, the university was able to enter this classification among the top 700 universities in the world (it is the only Qatar representative in this ranking), and it achieved advanced positions in the Arab world and among Qatari universities in several disciplines according to the subject ranking version of this same ranking. In fact, it ranked in the top 150 universities in the world for sports sciences, and first in the Arab world. In the Telecommunication Engineering, it ranked number 50 globally and placed in the 151-200 tier worldwide for Chemical Engineering,” Wazen added.
He added that Qatar University began paying attention to rankings in 2014 after the emergence of the Arab region ranking, which classified regional universities according to preset standards tailor-made for Anglo-Saxon institutions.
In line with the pivotal role Qatar plays in the region, QU considered it an obligation towards its stakeholders to bring to the attention of ranking organisations to universities in the MENA region who have proved across the years the high quality of their programs and the preparedness of their graduates.
Speaking on QU’s strategy for the current year, Wazen said, “The Qatar University 2022 strategy has included quality enhancement processes and improvement of the international standing in overall regional and global rankings as well as discipline-specific rankings as one of its goals. The aim is to bring at least two specializations into the ranks of the top universities in the world. As it is clear from our performance in recent years, this aim will be met and hopefully exceeded soon especially with the excellent scores on indicators of academic and employer reputation in the QS ranking as well as citation scores and publication output for both rankings.”
“Some indicators in rankings do not reflect excellence of universities in the region, others reward the efforts governments of the region put in improving research and teaching outputs. In fact, QU was ranked among the top 6 worldwide (having achieved top spot for 4 years in a row), this result is mainly due to the international research collaboration that is mainly due to the presence of the Qatar National Research Fund enabling QU to establish overseas research bonds.
“The indicators of academic reputation and employer reputation represent 50% of the score in the QS ranking, they are indicators in which the university is making continuous progress and will keep on doing so in the coming years, especially with the intensification of communication with colleges and employers,” he added.
