Riyadh: Dr. Diana Abdulkarim Al Jahrami, Secretary General of the Higher Education Council, chaired a Specialised Consultative Meeting focused on Global Rankings of Gulf Higher Education Institutions, organised by the GCC Secretariat-General's Human and Environment Affairs sector.
According to Bahrain News Agency, the meeting saw participation from Khalid bin Ali Al Sunaidi, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Development Affairs, along with regional and executive directors from global ranking organisations such as Times Higher Education and QS. These discussions included leading academics and experts intent on developing a unified GCC vision to bolster higher education performance.
The primary focus was on improving the quality of institutions, aligning strategic plans with international standards, and emphasizing sustainability and institutional transformation to build a global academic reputation. Participants reviewed successful examples within the GCC regarding international rankings to identify factors of excellence and explore best practices.
The meeting was highlighted as a crucial performance accelerator, offering an interactive platform to delve into the methodologies of global ranking institutions. This effort is aimed at optimizing resources and concentrating efforts on the indicators that enhance the GCC's educational reputation on the global stage.
Emphasizing the integration of quality assurance, the meeting aligned with the Council's goals of investing in human capital and supporting sustainable development. Several key recommendations emerged, such as investing in advanced centralised laboratories and shared digital research platforms for all GCC researchers. Additionally, the need to standardize institutional practices for ranking data and create mature environments for informed decision-making concerning global university rankings was highlighted.