UJ shines in top 3 global academic rankings for first time

AMMAN — The University of Jordan (UJ) is ranked among the top 700 universities worldwide for the first time in the history of Jordanian universities, according to the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities. The ranking considered 30,000 universities in total.

Zaid Eyadat, vice president of International Affairs, Quality and Accreditation, and director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, announced the university’s rank in a press conference at the university in Amman on Monday.

Mahmoud Al Qawariq, director of the Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance, indicated that this year, the University of Jordan is ranked in the top three global academic rankings: The Shanghai Academic Ranking, the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking, and the Times Higher Education (THE) World University ranking for the first time in history.

The university is ranked first nationally, 10th in the Arab region, and among the top 600 universities globally, according to the QS World University Rankings.

In terms of the QS Graduate Employability Ranking, the UJ is the only local university that ranks among the 301-500 best in the world.

It is also among the top 500 universities worldwide in 15 academic fields, including nursing, computer science, pharmacy and accounting and finance, according to the QS Subject Rankings. 

The university is ranked 48th in the world in terms of education quality, according to the THE Impact World University Ranking.

Eyadat praised the achievement of the university, noting that it is a “step in the right direction” that is needed to take the university to the next level on a global scale in order to achieve societal and state modernisation according to the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah.

According to Eyadat, UJ recently hosted presidents and deans of student affairs from different Jordanian universities to discuss launching a new phase of political work in universities, and the mechanisms for organising partisan activities.

“The university’s rank in the Shanghai Ranking, which is one of the most important international rankings and is based on several factors, is the result of the continuous effort and cumulative achievements that previous university administrations, researchers and scholars have contributed over the decades,” Eyadat said.

Qawariq emphasised the difficulty of being listed in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, as it has highly specific standards.

In the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, universities are ranked by several indicators of academic and research performance, including the quantity of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the quantity of highly cited researchers, the quantity of papers published in the journal of Nature and Science, the quantity of papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of the institution, Qarawiq said.

He noted that UJ has met three indicators, as it had one of the most cited researchers in the world, a number of papers and research studies published, making it among only 19 Arab universities, from six countries, ranked in the Shanghai Academic Ranking.