Three UAE colleges ranked in global top 50 young university list

Three UAE universities have been ranked in the Times Higher Education’s top 50 best young universities in the world.

The Young University Rankings 2023 examined the achievements of 963 universities less than 50 years old across 78 countries.

Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which was ranked second last year, topped the list. Regularly rated among the world’s best, despite being only three decades old, the institution caters for more than 25,000 students.

The top three in the list have swapped places in recent years. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (third last year) came second while third was Paris Sciences et Lettres University, which was first last year.

The highest placed from the UAE was Al Ain-based United Arab Emirates University in 38th place, jumping 37 places from last year.

The University of Sharjah was ranked 43rd, rising 46 places from last year’s list.

Khalifa University and United Arab Emirates University rank among global top 300

Abu Dhabi-based Khalifa University was placed 49th.

Abu Dhabi University made its first appearance on the list, ranked 58th.

The Times Higher Education Young University Rankings list uses the same globally recognised indicators as THE Global Rankings, but the criteria were adjusted to give less weight to reputation.

The universities are marked across five areas: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer).

The average overall score for UAE’s young universities has jumped by 36 per cent in five years, from 38.3 in 2019 to 51.2 in the latest table. Australia, the top-performing nation, achieved an average overall score of 53.