Arab University Rankings 2026: vision and vigour

Find your university in the Arab University Rankings 2026

Seven years ago, the president of one of the world’s leading universities predicted that Saudi Arabia could emulate China’s higher education success.

Opening the Times Higher Education MENA Universities Summit 2018 in Jeddah, Michael Arthur, then president and provost of UCL, said: “If you look at China over the past 20 years and you look at its higher education system, they’ve shown what can be done with careful and thoughtful strategic approaches and with appropriate levels of funding.

“So I would imagine that the same will happen and is already happening in the Middle East and particularly here in Saudi Arabia.”

That was just two years after Saudi Arabia had published its Vision 2030, outlining plans for the kingdom to reduce its dependence on oil, diversify its economy and develop public service sectors, including education.

There are now just five years to go to realise these ambitions. Is Saudi Arabia on track? And is its transformation – which has seen it make huge strides in research, and huge investments in higher education – comparable to the early years of China’s extraordinary rise?

These questions are explored in our main analysis of the Arab University Rankings 2026. Now in its fifth year, the Arab ranking methodology has been brought in line with that of the overall World University Rankings, and the results show that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates dominate at the top.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) leads the ranking for a third consecutive year; as well as receiving the highest overall score, it ranks first in four of the five pillars underpinning the methodology – teaching, research environment, research quality and industry – and is beaten only on international outlook (although it is ranked a very respectable sixth in the region on that front).

KAUST president Ed Byrne brings that data performance to life in his recent interview with THE, calling the institution “a scholarly nirvana”, where academics are focused on “great science but with great application”.

“My strong recommendation to my university colleagues is where your institution has the capacity, you have an absolute responsibility to make sure that your institution is doing its part in solving the problems of the world – and in a timely way,” he urged.

But research on global challenges such as climate change, clean water and food security is not the only way that universities can respond to urgent societal problems. Our THE Awards Arab World 2025, the results of which were also announced this week, reveal the ways in which universities in the region are playing a crucial role in the response to and recovery from war and conflict. 

Together the rankings data and the higher education stories from the awards demonstrate the extraordinary, and rising, quality of Arab universities; their role as pillars of their communities; and their contributions in driving the Arab World region’s relentless progress.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

Countries/territories represented in the Arab University Rankings 2026