CAIRO: Alexandria University was listed as the 147th best university in the world by the London Times Higher Education supplement, making it among the top places to study. It is the only Egyptian university to be ranked in the newspaper's annual university rankings. In 2006, Cairo University had made the list, but has since fallen off the global education ranking by the London-based newspaper. The List of the World's Top Universities takes into account five categories and indicators “designed to highlight a full range of university activities such as teaching, research, citations, industry income and international mix,” the Times reported. Alexandria University garnered some 51.6 points for its overall score, receiving 29.5 points from teaching, 19.3 from international mix, 36 from industry income and innovation, 28 from research and 99.8 in citation and influence. “I believe we are well deserving of being on the list,” professor of economics Amr Hussein told Bikya Masr. “We have worked hard to improve our system of education and it is showing that we are succeeding in doing so.” The list did not include any Israeli University for the first year ever, which is considered unusual. Last year, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem held the 102 spot in the listing, Tel Aviv University was 114th, and the Haifa Technion came in at 132. However, According to the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz, most Israeli universities were not on the list because they failed to respond to repeated requests for information, including faculty and students, which is necessary for the listing. The list witnessed the presence of more than 50 American University in this year's top 200, with Harvard University ranking number 1, along with another four American universities taking over the top five, respectively, California Institute of Technology at no. 2, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology at no. 3, Stanford University at no. 4 and Princeton University at no. 5. The United Kingdom was the second country to take the majority of the list, with the highest number of universities classified as top universities after the United States, followed by Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. Egypt was the only Arab country to be listed in the rankings, while it is the second African country, following South Africa and second in the Middle East following Turkey. Hend Hanafi, President of Alexandria University, told local media that she is proud of the ranking and hopes the university will continue to make efforts to consistently improve the quality of education at the university. BM
