Announcing our new Arab University Rankings advisory board

Updated 14 December 2023

In January we announced the formation of the Times Higher Education Arab University Rankings advisory board, and we invited applications from across the Arab region. We received a large number of high-quality applications, perhaps unsurprising given that this is the fastest-improving university region in the world. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who took the time to submit an application to help us improve our ranking.

We are very pleased to announce that the Arab University Rankings advisory board has now been created, with nine members from nine different countries, a wide range of experience, and a gender split of five women and four men.

The board members are:

The creation of the advisory board is an important part of our commitment to widen the transparency of our approach – as we’ve seen with our Impact Rankings advisory board and our World University Rankings advisory board.

The board will meet four times a year, including at least one in-person event, and THE will assist the members with information and administrative support.

The Arab University Rankings were created in 2021 to support the rapid growth in the quantity and quality of universities in the Arab region. In the 2021 ranking 125 universities were ranked, plus 30 reporter institutions; the 2022 ranking sees 169 universities ranked, with a further 48 reporters.

David Watkins is managing director of data science at Times Higher Education.