Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University has been named as the third-best educational institution in the Arab world in the latest global university rankings.
Coming in behind Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University and its King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Khalifa University was ranked 181st in research from UK education analysts, QS Quacquarelli Symonds.
Khalifa University was found to have the highest faculty-student ratio in the Arab world and is the UAE’s best institution for research.
King Abdulaziz University improved for an eighth consecutive year to reach its highest ever rank of 106th.
Qatar University moved up 16 positions to 208th, climbing 349 places globally in terms of academic reputation.
Lebanon is home to six of the Arab world's 20 highest-ranked universities — joint highest alongside the UAE. Its top university is the American University of Beirut, in 252nd place.
Egypt is the only Arabic-speaking country on the African continent to place in the world top 500, with the American University in Cairo ranking 416th.
Arab world universities in the top 500 in 2023
106 — King Abdulaziz University
160 — King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
181 — Khalifa University
208 — Qatar University
237 — King Saud University
252 — American University of Beirut
296 — United Arab Emirates University
369 — American University of Sharjah
= Sultan Qaboos University
384 — Umm Al Qura University
477 — Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University
Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President at QS Quacquarelli Symonds, presented the rankings in New York on Wednesday. He said the UAE was "clearly a hugely attractive higher-education destination for international faculty and students alike".
This reflected a high ratio of staff to students and strong research performance, he said.
"The UAE’s performance in this year’s rankings comes as little surprise. It follows a multi-year trend for the nation and is to be expected from an economy that has been expanding exponentially for several decades.
"Subsequently, the UAE has experienced one of the biggest higher education booms in the world as ambitious development projects have pumped vast resources into creating new and expanding universities.”
Outside the Arab world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) marks 11 years as the world’s best university while the University of Oxford (4th) drops two places and the University of Cambridge (2nd) gains one.
British and American universities held nine of the top 10 places, alongside Swiss institution ETH Zurich. China and Singapore were also represented in the top 20.
The highest-ranked university in Latin America was Argentina's Universidad de Buenos Aires, which came 67th. Africa's top scorer was the 237th-placed University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Top 20 world university rankings 2023
1 — Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
2 — University of Cambridge, UK
3 — Stanford University, US
4 — University of Oxford, UK
5 — Harvard University, US
6 — Caltech, US
7 — Imperial College London, UK
8 — University College London, UK
9 — ETH Zurich, Switzerland
10 — University of Chicago, US
11 — National University of Singapore
12 — Peking University, China
13 — University of Pennsylvania, US
14 — Tsinghua University, China
15 — University of Edinburgh, UK
16 — Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
16 — Princeton University, US
18 — Yale University, US
19 — Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
20 — Cornell University, US
US and Canada
In the US, 103 out of 201 universities fell in the list while 29 rose. Twenty-five universities were new entrants.
In Canada, 20 out of 31 universities dropped and McGill University (31st) became the new national leader.
Europe
Forty-eight of 90 universities fell in the list in the UK while 10 improved.
Top 10 UK university rankings 2023
2 – University of Cambridge
4 – University of Oxford
6 – Imperial College London
8 – UCL
15 – The University of Edinburgh
28 – The University of Manchester
37 – King’s College London
56 - The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
61 - University of Bristol
64 – University of Warwick
ETH Zurich has remained continental Europe’s best university for 15 consecutive years.
France’s merged universities ascended in the table, with Paris Sciences et Lettres University (26th) breaking into the top 30.
Asia
More universities improved than fell in India, with all top nine institutions continuing to rise.
China has the third most-represented higher education system (71 universities) and is home to two of the world’s top 15 universities for the first time ever — Peking University (12th) and Tsinghua University (14th).
Asia’s top university is the National University of Singapore, which ranked 11th globally.
Universities in Malaysia, South Korea and Indonesia improved while those in Japan and Thailand declined.
Africa
Africa’s leader is the University of Cape Town (237th). Only five of the continent’s universities are among the top 500
Latin America
Universidad de Buenos Aires (67th) is confirmed as Latin America’s best. Hampered by low research impact scores, more of the continent’s universities fell in the rankings.
Australia
Australia retains five top 50 universities and as many universities improved as declined.
About QS Quacquarelli Symonds world university rankings
The QS index features 1,418 institutions across 100 locations. The results account for 16.4 million academic papers and 117.8 million citations received by those papers. They also reflect the expert opinions of 151,000 academic faculty and 99,000 employers.
The index uses six indicators to compile the rankings, including academic and employer reputation, citations per faculty, faculty-to-student ratio, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.
This year, the company added two performance measurements, including employment outcomes and international research network, which analyses international research collaboration and knowledge transfer.
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Joe Root's Test record
Tests: 53; Innings: 98; Not outs: 11; Runs: 4,594; Best score: 254; Average: 52.80; 100s: 11; 50s: 27
RESULTS
5pm Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Munfared, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Sawt Assalam, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dergham Athbah, Pat Dobbs, Mohamed Daggash
6.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Rajee, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
7pm Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Kerless Del Roc, Fernando Jara, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Pharoah King, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8pm Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner Sauternes Al Maury, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
11 cabbie-recommended restaurants and dishes to try in Abu Dhabi
Iqbal Restaurant behind Wendy’s on Hamdan Street for the chicken karahi (Dh14)
Pathemari in Navy Gate for prawn biryani (from Dh12 to Dh35)
Abu Al Nasar near Abu Dhabi Mall, for biryani (from Dh12 to Dh20)
Bonna Annee at Navy Gate for Ethiopian food (the Bonna Annee special costs Dh42 and comes with a mix of six house stews – key wet, minchet abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs fir fir and shiro).
Al Habasha in Tanker Mai for Ethiopian food (tibs, a hearty stew with meat, is a popular dish; here it costs Dh36.75 for lamb and beef versions)
Himalayan Restaurant in Mussaffa for Nepalese (the momos and chowmein noodles are best-selling items, and go for between Dh14 and Dh20)
Makalu in Mussaffa for Nepalese (get the chicken curry or chicken fry for Dh11)
Al Shaheen Cafeteria near Guardian Towers for a quick morning bite, especially the egg sandwich in paratha (Dh3.50)
Pinky Food Restaurant in Tanker Mai for tilapia
Tasty Zone for Nepalese-style noodles (Dh15)
Ibrahimi for Pakistani food (a quarter chicken tikka with roti costs Dh16)
Results
ATP Dubai Championships on Monday (x indicates seed):
First round
Roger Federer (SUI x2) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Marton Fucsovics (HUN) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-1, 7-6 (7/5)
Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS x4) 6-4, 6-1
Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Milos Raonic (CAN x7) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
FIXTURES
UAE’s remaining fixtures in World Cup qualification R2
Oct 8: Malaysia (h)
Oct 13: Indonesia (a)
Nov 12: Thailand (h)
Nov 17: Vietnam (h)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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AIR
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBen%20Affleck%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMatt%20Damon%2C%20Jason%20Bateman%2C%20Ben%20Affleck%2C%20Viola%20Davis%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
