Despite Morocco’s recent efforts to improve higher education institutions in the country, Moroccan universities are still ranking poorly at the international level.
Rabat – The University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah of Fez is the best in Morocco, according to the Times Higher Education magazine.
The magazine recently issued its 2020 Emerging Economies University Rankings of 533 universities from 47 developing countries.
Despite being the best higher education institution in Morocco, the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University did not make it to the ranking’s Top 200, falling in the 201-205 segment.
The list included four other Moroccan universities.
The Mohammed V University of Rabat ranked between 301st and 350th globally.
Meanwhile, the Hassan II University of Casablanca and the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech appeared on the 351-400 ranking segment.
Finally, the Ibn Tofail University of Kenitra was fifth nationally and between 401st and 500th globally.
The rankings include institutions from countries classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging,” “secondary emerging,” or “frontier.” Morocco is part of the third category.
The magazine used 13 performance indicators to calculate the universities’ quality of teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook. They also recalibrated the indicators to reflect the development priorities of universities in emerging economies.
In Africa, the top three spots in the rankings went to the University of Cape Town in South Africa (10th globally), followed by the South African universities of Witwatersrand (11th) and Stellenbosch (24th).
In the MENA region, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University came first (13th globally), followed by the UAE’s Khalifa University (15th) and Saudi Arabia’s Alfaisal University (20th).
The best universities in North Africa, according to the rankings, are Egyptian universities. However, none of them are in the Top 100. The Mansoura University ranked 102nd, followed by the Aswan University (104th) and the Suez Canal University (109th).
On the global ladder, China has the best universities, with seven Chinese institutions ranking in the Top 10. Only Russia, Taiwan, and South Africa appear in the first ten ranks alongside China.
China also has the largest number of universities making it to the rankings, with 81 institutions. India comes second, with 56 universities, followed by Brazil, with 46 institutions.
In September 2019, Times Higher Education published its 2020 World University Rankings, gathering 1400 universities from 92 countries. The list included four Moroccan universities, but none of them made it to the Top 500.
Again, the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah ranked first on the national level. However, internationally, the university ranked in the 601-800 section.
Meanwhile, the Hassan II University, the Cadi Ayyad University, and the Mohammed V University all ranked in the 1001+ section.
