The American University in Beirut, which was ranked first in the Middle-East at  228th on the overall list. The American University in Cairo
has been ranked as the second best university in the Middle East and
North Africa region and 365th worldwide, according to an annual
ranking released by QS World University Rankings. The annual QS rankings
rate the world’s top universities using six different indicators:
academic reputation, employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio,
citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international
student ratio.

AUC’s rank directly followed the George
Washington University, Northeastern University and Virginia Tech, three
prestigious US universities.  It’s the only private institution in Egypt
included in the QS rankings. “There are a lot of
universities in the world; to be in the 300 band is extraordinary,” said
Ted Purinton, dean of the Graduate School of Education and an expert in
international education, in an AUC press release. According
to Purinton, AUC ranked higher than the University of Milan, the
American University in Washington DC, Stellenbosch University, Brandeis,
Wake Forest University, and Florida State.

“These
are all top universities, all of which are widely known and very
prestigious. Thus, I would say we should feel exceedingly proud of where
we are now,” Purinton added. While AUC’s ranking has dipped down
and back up again over the years, Purinton explained that there should
be little concern over slight changes in a university’s rankings.
“Universities float around within bands of rankings for very minor
issues,” he said. He added that if a university
had a slight change in the number of international students or faculty
members, most of the university’s community will not feel the impact,
yet its ranking score will noticeably change.

AUC came
second in the MENA region after the American University in Beirut, which
was ranked 228th on the overall list. They were however ranked ahead of
other prominent MENA universities such as the American universities in
Sharjah and Dubai.

Ranking is an ongoing process of
improvement and enhancement, noted Iman Megahed, executive director of
the Office of Data Analytics and Institutional Research. “AUC’s
ranking reflects its institutional strength, which the university
constantly aims to improve through continuous assessment and creating
evidence-based change,” she said.

Established in
2004, the QS World University Rankings evaluates only about 900
universities globally. In other words, only the top 3 to 5 percent of
higher education institutions worldwide are included in these rankings.