Safa Jafari Safa, Office of Communications, communications@aub.edu.lb
AUB continues to rank at its highest in the QS World University Rankings (WUR) 2023 for the third consecutive year. It ranked 252nd (out of 1,422 institutions in 100 countries) and number one in Lebanon. In the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2022, which comprises 616 universities from 31 countries in the Asia continent, AUB was tied at 51.
Jean Abi Saab, senior institutional analyst at AUB, explained, “The twin global rankings demonstrate that AUB has remained among the top 18 percent globally in the QS World University Rankings, and among the top 8 percent in THE Asia University Rankings, proving AUB to be resilient and in good stead among the big names in the region."
AUB awarded for graduate employability and engagement
In a ceremony held by QS Edudata Summit at the United Nations Headquarters earlier in June 2022, AUB received two out of five awards, one for its commitment to graduate success under the graduate employability category and one for its excellence in providing data to help QS in its rankings work. Graduate Employability remains AUB's strongest indicator and a sign that employers globally, and especially in the Arab world, strongly seek AUB graduates.
AUB was ranked 228th in the QS employer reputation category (weighted at 10 percent) and was ranked 22nd globally in a newly introduced metric called employment outcomes (unweighted). The latter looks at both the graduate employment rate and the impact that those graduates make in their careers. AUB achieved a score of 144.4 against a global average of 35.
QS teaching excellence and international outlook
AUB scored highly in the categories of QS faculty-to-student ratio (weighted at 20 percent and regarded a sign of high-quality teaching) as well as the international faculty and students categories (weighted 5 percent each). All three metrics were ranked in the top 250 among world universities and performed well above the global median. These indicators refer to AUB's performance as a diverse university on the global stage.
Research and citation pillars
AUB's performance remained relatively stable in academic reputation, one of the most heavily weighted QS WUR indicators, weighted at 40 percent of overall score.
Its performance in the THE Asia research pillar continued to be on a constant rise from previous years. Weighted at 30 percent to measure research productivity, income, and reputation, the pillar is indicative of the quality of research and scholars at AUB.
AUB's number of citations per faculty member significantly improved in value from the previous year, by 34 percent. This score is weighted at 20 percent by QS WUR to estimate the impact and quality of the scientific work.
In the THE Asia ranking, the field weighted citation impact (FWCI), weighted also at 30 percent, became AUB's strongest pillar and has demonstrated continuous improvement. The FWCI score indicates how the number of citations received by an entity's publications compares with the average number of citations received by all other similar publications. AUB's performance in this category reflects its contribution in spreading new knowledge and ideas.
According to Jean Abi Saab, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenging circumstances Lebanon has been going through, AUB boosted its citation performance and demonstrated its commitment to producing high-quality and highly impactful research. He added that AUB produced 25 percent more in normalized citations count as recorded by QS, which is based on a six-year period from 2016 to 2021. In addition, its overall research influence (FWCI) pillar in the THE Asia, ranks in the top three in the Middle East region during the same six-year period.
In the international research network category, which is also a new unweighted metric, AUB recorded 54.5 against a global median of 41.0. This category reflects the ability of an institution to diversify the geography of its international research network by establishing sustainable research partnerships with other higher education institutions.
QS WUR and THE Asia methodology
The QS World University Rankings assess each academic institution on six metrics: academic reputation (40 percent), employer reputation (10 percent), faculty/student ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), and international faculty ratio/international student ratio (5 percent each).
For THE Asia rankings, the performance indicators are grouped into five pillars: teaching (the learning environment) (25 percent); research (volume, income and reputation) (30 percent); citations (FWCI) (30 percent); international outlook (staff, students, and research) (7.5 percent); and industry income (knowledge transfer) (7.5 percent).