Harvard University has topped the Chinese list of university rankings for the eighth consecutive year. No Egyptian or Middle Eastern universities featured on the list
The list, released annually by Jiaotong University's Centre for World-Class Universities in Shanghai, is dominated by American universities, which occupied 54 of the top 100 ranks.
Zaki al-Beheiri, a professor at the University of Mansoura, said that large class sizes, lack of funding and not enough proper educational facilities such as libraries and laboratories explain why Arab and Middle Eastern universities did not feature on the list.
The highest-ranked non-US institutions this year were Britain's Cambridge and Oxford universities, in fifth and tenth places respectively.
The University of Tokyo, placed 20th on the list was the highest rated institution in the Asia-Pacific region.
The rankings are focused almost entirely on a university's achievements in scientific research, using criteria such as the number of Nobel prizes and Fields medals won by staff and alumni, and the number of articles by faculty published in Nature and Science magazines.
This system of ranking is severely criticized by European countries because of the fact that the analysis is focused solely on science and ignores the humanities. They are planning to introduce their own ranking system next year.
