The Supreme Education Council Announces The New universities list (2011-2013)

The Higher Education Institute (HEI) of the Supreme Education Council (SEC) has announced a list of 910 names of the best universities and colleges from around the world including the Education City universities. The list, which is updated every two years selects the best universities for scholarship recipients based on international ranking criteria to achieve the best academic and research outputs and allows parents to choose the best option for their children.
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The universities offering different disciplines are based in more than 40 countries including United States, Great Britain, Asia (Pacific), Africa, Europe, Canada, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

“The new list compiled by the Higher Education Institute includes 910 colleges and universities from 40 countries around the globe with about 25% per cent increase to the previous lists of colleges and universities (2009-2011). The list includes the best universities and higher education institutions in the world” said Mr. Ahmad Ibrahim Hasan Acting director of higher education institute.

The HEI standing committee at the Higher Education Institute employed statistical methods and parameters in preparing the list. It also used criteria and standards of global and national ranking agencies.

The number of colleges and universities in “Hamad Bin Khalifa” Scholarship Program has increased to include the top 20 universities in the world, followed by the top 30 universities in the “Tamim Bin Hamad” Scholarship Program. The numbers in these lists were significantly increased to give students an opportunity to benefit from the generous grants provided by the state in the name of HH the Emir and HH Heir Apparent.

The HEI implemented the rankings of Shanghai Jiaotong University in selecting the universities in the Emiri scholarship lists. In this regard, it is important to mention that the Higher Education Institute at Shanghai University produces a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities, which has been compiled every year based on a formula which takes into account, the alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Field Medals, the staff winning Nobel Prizes and Field Medals, highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject areas, articles published in Nature and Science, and other factors.

In addition to the ranking of the Shanghai Jiaotong University, the HEI used the Times Higher Education Supplement International ranking of universities (THES) to prepare the Emiri scholarship lists and the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa lists of universities. The Times global ranking which was first published in 2004 is based upon several criteria including peer review by academics, citations of research articles per faculty member, teacher-student ratio, numbers of international faculty staff and students, and the assessment by employers of recent graduates.

In the new lists of college and universities about (54) new universities from 9 countries were added to the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and Europe lists which constitutes 23% per cent increase to the previous HEI lists of colleges and universities (2009-2011). The total number in this list went up to 287 universities from 38 countries.

With regard to the U.S. colleges and universities, which comprises (49%) of the list, the HEI utilized the US News & World Report and its publications: America’s Best Colleges and America’s Best Graduate Schools (2011). These publications are best-known American college and university rankings which have been compiled since 1983 by the magazine U.S. News & World Report and are based upon data collected by U.S. News from each educational institution, either from an annual survey sent to each institution or from the institution’s website. It is also based upon opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators who do not belong to the institution. The most important factors in the rankings are: Peer assessment:, retention, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, alumni giving rate, and graduation rate.

About (86) universities and colleges were added to the USA list of universities to bring the total number up to 446 universities and colleges. For the UK colleges and universities which comprise 15% of the new list, the HEI committee used the Times University rankings as a main source of ranking with the use of the Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide in Association with the Independent as a control group.

The Times Good University Guide provides a useful guide for measuring institutional quality. Its key strength is the quantity and breadth of factors taken into consideration in conducting the underpinning analysis and subsequent ranking. The Times University rankings take into account eight factors including student satisfaction, research, entry standards, student-staff ratio, facilities spending, graduate prospects, and completion.

In this regard, about 36 universities were added to the UK list of colleges and universities according to disciplines and the total number becomes 127 universities and colleges.

Disciplines in USA and UK lists, were selected to meet and correspond with the need of the state of Qatar and the labor market. And also to enable students to choose universities and disciplines they wish to attend.

On average, the number of subjects selected from each university is increased by 44 per cent compared to the previous HEI lists (2009-2011) , with an average increase of 13 subjects and a range from 1 to 39 for each university. The number of universities listed within each discipline, were increased by 35% per cent to the previous lists, with an average increase of 10 universities and a range between 0 and 21 University for each major. According to the needs of students and labor market in the State of Qatar, new disciplines were added to the USA list of colleges and universities, these disciplines are: Mass Communication and Journalism, Surveying, Dentistry, and Geography.

Ten colleges in the field of liberal arts and sciences were also added to the new list to give more options to our students.