Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University has been named the Mena region’s top-ranked institution for the sixth consecutive year.
The Jeddah university retained its place in the 201-250 position in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021.
Lebanon’s American University of Beirut moved up the rankings to the 301-350 band.
The No 1 slot went to the UK’s University of Oxford for the fifth year running.
Saudi Arabia’s Alfaisal University took the second-highest Mena ranking, in the 251-300 bracket.
Their ranks have been described as “impressive” by the organisers who say this year there were a record 1,527 institutions qualifying.
United Arab Emirates University and Iran’s Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences were ranked in the top 350, followed by the UAE’s Khalifa University and Iran’s Babol Noshirvani University of Technology in the top 400.
The wider rankings saw the United States dominate the top 10 and mainland China's Tsinghua University becoming the first Asian university to break into the top 20 since the current methodology began in 2011.
“While Saudi Arabia continues to top the World University Ranking for Mena, with an impressive sixth consecutive year in the 201-250 band for King Abdulaziz University, it is testament to the growing strength of higher education across the Middle East to see Lebanon and Iran also move into the top 350,” said Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at Times Higher Education (THE).
...we could be seeing the start of a rebalancing of the global knowledge economy
“As China’s Tsinghua University disrupts the traditional domination of western universities at the top of the table, breaking into the top 20 for the first time, we could be seeing the start of a rebalancing of the global knowledge economy that could be further accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.
"With a likely decrease in the international flow of students and staff around the world, and possible funding challenges among the West's established higher-education sectors as a result of Covid-19, we could see universities across Mena and Asia capitalise if home-grown talent stays put rather than making its traditional migration to elite Western institutions, particularly in the US and the UK."
The ranking assessed 13 separate performance criteria covering a range of core activities for research-intensive universities including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
This year’s ranking analysed over 86 million citations across more than 13.6 million research publications and included survey responses from 22,000 scholars globally. The 17th edition of the rankings sees a record 18 countries and regions represented in the top 100, and 93 represented overall.
On Monday, PwC Middle East warned the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit held online that Mena universities needed to adapt quickly in an attempt to ride out the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's encouraging to see a couple of strong Saudi universities holding their own this year despite the increased competition, and my heartfelt congratulations for American University of Beirut, who managed to improve their ranking,” said Sally Jeffery, global education and skills network leader at PwC Middle East.
"It's clear though that most Middle Eastern research-focused universities need to transform faster and smarter to fuel the region's knowledge economy. During the pandemic, many of the regulations and traditional governance structures that often constrain agility had to be relaxed. I sincerely hope the sector can recognise and build on the positive outcomes of this experience in the future."
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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.”
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