Egyptian universities, research centers fall and rise in top international rankings: International rankings yielded mixed results for Egyptian universities and research centers in 2023. Spanish research organization SCImago included 49 universities on their list, up from 42 in 2022; 27 government research centers were listed from 22 last year; and six health organizations made the list this year compared to last year’s four.

SCImago’s methodology takes three major criteria into account — research, innovation and society: Some 40% of SCImago’s ranking model comes from research performance, which tracks metrics like the quality of publications produced by these centers and the frequency of their output. Innovation snaps up another 40% of the ranking and measures the technical impact of their work based on patents and patent citations. The remaining 20% of the weighting looks at societal metrics such as web presence and their contribution to sustainable development goals.

Who’s involved? The rankings are sponsored by Egypt’s Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry, which shares “insights related to research centers and strategies,” according to SCImago. Netherlands-based academic publishing company Elsevier and its Scopus platform are the main data providers for the rankings, which SCImago then develops into its final rankings.

Top 3 all fall: SCImago’s overall rankings list sees Cairo University, Ain Shams University, and Alexandria University as Egypt’s highest-ranked universities — a repeat of 2022’s top three. All three universities saw their rankings decline this year, with Alexandria University dropping 150 places to 2630, Ain Shams falling to 2506 from 2180, and Cairo University slipping to 1125 from 985.

Egyptian universities were less present in overall regional rankings: Despite its local success, Cairo University missed out on a top 10 spot in the Middle East institution’s rankings, coming in at number 12 in 2023 — one down from its 2022 ranking. No other Egyptian organizations landed in the top 20 Middle Eastern universities for this year.

When we look at the research rankings, there was little change from last year: Cairo University (768) took the top spot in Egypt, followed by Ain Shams University (2300) and Zagazig University (2464). Cairo University (523) also came first in the societal rankings, with Alexandria University (980) and Ain Shams University (984) following. Misr University for Science and Technology (2200) received the top spot for innovation, followed by Pharos University in Alexandria (2255) and Nile University (2952).

Where we shone regionally: Research rankings for government centers: Egyptian organizations dominated the Middle East research scores taking eight spots in the top 10, with the National Research Center (NRC) at #3, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute at #4, and Plant Pathology Research Institute at #5. Local institutes accounted for 27 of the total 64 Egyptian government centers included in SCImago’s list, compared to 22 out of 55 institutions last year. The NRC fared well in the overall regional rankings for government centers, ranking in the top 10 alongside the Environment and Natural Materials Research Institute and Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute.

How are research institutes chosen? All MENA region research centers that do not belong to a higher education institute and are conducting non-health related research have been included in these rankings, according to SCImago. But there’s one more rule: All research centers need to have published at least one academic paper in a journal on the Scopus database at some point between 2016-2020 to be eligible.

Driving the advancement of our scientific research: Greater provision of technical support, education regarding international publishing, scientific promotion committees and information made available through the Egyptian Knowledge Bank, said ministry spokesperson Adel Abdel Ghaffar, according to the State Information Service.

That top-down focus from the government has been key to improving Egypt’s scientific research ranking, Peter Okebukola, president of the Global University Network for Innovation, told the World Economic Forum. “Increased funding through special interventions for research and infrastructural development” can be seen in Egypt, he said. Success breeds success, he added, as higher global rankings help attract international students and research grants, supporting further ranking rises.

Your top education stories for the week:

  • AUC has a new counselor: The American University in Cairo (AUC) appointed former education minister Tarek Shawki as the new university counselor.
  • Gov’t wants a new policymaking body for education: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly has forwarded a draft decision to establish a National Council for Education to the National Dialogue which would be responsible for setting policies and supervising their implementation.
  • US-based MENA-focused e-learning company Classera launched EduMalls, the first specialized e-commerce platform catering to students in Egypt and Saudi Arabia across all educational stages. (Statement, pdf)
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