An Experiment Using LinkedIn Data to Rank Arab Universities

University World News recently published an article by Rahul Choudaha suggesting that LinkedIn is the future of global rankings. At the moment that sounds a bit exaggerated and LinkedIn in its present form may be gone in a decade but he could be on to something.

Leaving Europe, North America and East Asia aside, the reliability of institutional data is very low and that makes serious evaluation of graduate outcomes, staff quality, income, teaching resources and so on extremely difficult.

This problem is especially acute for the Middle East and North Africa region where there appears to be a big demand for university rankings but little accurate information. The consequence has been some highly implausible results in the rankings attempted so far. Last year THE produced a "snapshot"of a ranking indicator which put Texas A&M Qatar as the top university for research impact.and QS's pilot rankings have the American University of Sharjah in joint first place for academic reputation, Al-Nahrain University top for faculty student ratio and Khalifa University top for papers per faculty.

So, here is a list of Arab universities ordered by the number of students or professionals putting them on the Decision Board, indicating an interest in attending Counting was done on the 14th of May.

If this approximates to reputation among students and the public then it seems that Egyptian universities have been undervalued n previous ranking exercises.

Rank	University	Country	Interested in attending
1	Helwan University	Egypt	422
2	American University in Cairo	Egypt	394
3	Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport	Egypt	359
4	Cairo University	Egypt	353
5	Ain Shams University	Egypt	245
6	Alexandria University	Egypt	230
7	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	211
8	American University of Beirut	Lebanon	193
9	École Nationale Polytechnique d'Alger	Algeria	184
10	King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	138
11	Lebanese American University	Lebanon	133
12	American University in Dubai	UAE	131
13	Qatar University	Qatar	102
14	American University of Sharjah	UAE	91
15	King Abdullah University of Science and Technology	Saudi Arabia	85
16=	Al Azhar University	Egypt	78
16=	University of Dubai	UAE	78
18	Damascus University	Syria	73
19	University of Dammam	Saudi Arabia	70
20=	Mansoura Univerdity	Egypt	68
20=	Houari Boumediene University of Science and Technology	Algeria	68
22	UAE University	UAE	62
23	Higher Colleges of Technology	UAE	58
24=	Tanta University	Egypt	51
24=	German University in Cairo	Egypt	51
26	Zagazig University	Egypt	50
27=	Suez Canal University	Egypt	43
27=	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	43
27=	Umm Al-Qura University	Saudi Arabia	43
30=	Abu Dhabi UNiversity	UAE	33
30=	Ajman University of Science & Technology	UAE	33
32	Assiut Universit	Egypt	32
33	Université Mentouri de Constantine	Algeria	27
34	Université Libanaise	Lebanon	26
35	Al-Imam Mohamed Ibn Saud Islamic University	Saudi Arabia	23
36	Université Saad Dahlab Blida	Algeria	22
37	Prince Sultan University	Saudi Arabia	21
38=	King Faisal University	Saudi Arabia	20
38=	Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi Ouzo	Algeria	20
40	Université Badji Mokhtar de Annaba	Algeria	19
41	Khalifa University	UAE	19
42=	Université de Batna	Algeria	18
42=	Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech	Morocco	18
44=	King Khalid University	Saudi Arabia	17
44=	Sanaa University	Yemen	17
46	University of Bejaia	Jordan	16
47=	Zayed University	UAE	14
47=	Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah	Morocco	14
49=	Masdar Intiute of Science and Technology	UAE	13
49=	Université d'Oran	Algeria	13
51=	Yarmouk University	Jordan	12
51=	Universite de Tunis El Manar	Tunisia	12
53=	Texas A&M Qatar	Qater	11
53=	University of Sharjah	UAE	11
53=	Minia University	Egypt	11
53=	University of Tunis	Tunisia	11
53=	Universite de Monastir	Tunisia	11
58=	University of Jordan	Jordan	10
58=	Benha University	Egypt	10
58=	University of Bahrain	Bahrain	10
61	Taif University	Saudi Arabia	0
62	Kuwait University	Kuwait	0
63	University of Baghdad	Iraq	0
64	University of Khartoum	Sudan	0
65	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan	0
66	Mosul University	Iraq	0
67	Qassim University	Saudi Arabia	0
68	Taibah University	Saudi Arabia	0
69	Hashemite University	Jordan	0
70	Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen	Algeria	0
71	Al Balqa Applied University	Algeria	0
72	Babylon University	Iraq	0
73	South Valley University	Egypt	0
74	Meoufia University	Egypt	0
75	Fayoum University	Egypt	0
76	Sohag University	Egypt	0
77	Beni-Suef University	Egypt	0
78	Jazan University	Saudi Arabia	0
79	Universite de Sfax	Tunisia	0
80	Al Nahrain University	Iraq	0
81	University of Basrah	Iraq	0
82	King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences	Saudi Arabia	0
83	Université Mohammed V Agdal	Morocco	0
84	Alfaisal University	Saudi Arabia	0
85	Arabian Gulf University	Bahrain	0
86=	Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi	UAE	0
86=	National Engineering School of Sfax	Tunisia	0
88	Mutah University	Jordan	0
89	Kafrelsheikh University	Egypt	0
90	Université de Carthage (7 de Novembre)	Tunisia	0
91	University of Balamand	Lebanon	0
92	Beirut Arab University	Lebanon	0
93	Université Hassan II Mohammadia	Morocco	0
94	Universite de Sousse	Tunisia	0
95	Université Abdelmalek Essaadi	Morocco	0
96	Petra University	Jordan	0
97	Djillali Liabes University	Algeria	0
98	Université Ferhat Abbas Setif	Algeria	0
99	Princess Sumaya University for Technology	Jordan	0
100	Université de la Manouba	Tunisia	0
101	Université Ibn Tofail Kénitra	Morocco	0
102	Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth	Lebanon	0
103	Université de Gabes	Tunisia	0
104	Université Mohammed Premier Oujda	Morocco	0
105	Mohamed Boudiaf University of Science and Technology	Algeria	0
106	Sultan Qaboos University	Oman	0