London: Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) has been ranked among the best universities in Asia in 2020 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020.
THE said that the university has seven core values. These are professionalism, excellence, commitment, integrity, loyalty, collaboration and equity. Opened in 1986, SQU ranked among the best 251 Asian universities, it added.
It further said that SQU started with 500 students; now it hosts more than 7,000 male and female students.
It also said, "The institution originally had five colleges, but there are now nine in total. These include Medicine and Health Sciences, Engineering, Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Education, Science, Arts and Social Sciences, Commerce and Political Sciences, Law and Nursing.
THE also pointed out, "The university recruited students from 38 countries while academics hailed from 69 nations. The institution also collaborates with universities across the world; it has agreements with universities in Asia, Europe, Australasia, North America and South America."
It added that the international students at SQU constitute 4 per cent of the total number of students.
THE ranking includes five weighted criteria: Teaching (25 per cent), Research (30 per cent), Citations (30 per cent), Industry Income (7.5 per cent) and the International Outlook (7.5 per cent) and is calculated through thirteen performance indicators that professionally assessed all academic and research aspects of universities.
These indicators are: Reputation survey: Teaching (10 per cent), Staff-to-student ratio: (4.5 per cent), Doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio (2.25 per cent), Doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio (6 per cent), Institutional income (2.25 per cent) Reputation survey – research (15 per cent), Research Income (7.5 per cent), Research productivity (7.5 per cent) Citations impact (30 per cent), Proportion of international students (2.5 per cent), Proportion of international staff (2.5 per cent), International collaboration (2.5 per cent) and Industry Income (7.5 per cent).