More than a dozen Arab universities made Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings ' list of the 800 best universities around the world. THE World University Rankings for 2015-'16 featured universities from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon,Egypt, Oman, Jordan, UAE, and Qatar, whose Qatar University appeared for the first time .
King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia topped the list of Arab universities, followed by the American University of Beirut.
The ranking were based on the number of full-time students, student-to-staff ratio, rate of international students, and female-to-male ratio. Other criteria, specific to performance, included teaching, international outlook, research, citations, and industry income.