The event was attended by representatives from the Higher Education Institute at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education; Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development; the Community College of Qatar; the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies; Georgetown University in Qatar; Northwestern University in Qatar; the Police College; Texas A&M at Qatar; as well as faculty, researchers, and leadership from across HBKU’s colleges and research institutes.

Dr. Ahmad M. Hasnah, President of HBKU, said: “HBKU seeks to not only add value to the academic landscape in Qatar through its innovative programs and research, but to also play an important role in topics that benefit the wider education community.

“The University Ranking Forum gave academic leaders from across Qatar the opportunity to interact with representatives of major global university ranking organizations to gain valuable insights into the significant criteria by which universities are included in rankings. This is to ensure that we acknowledge the significant advances being made in the higher education sector in Qatar and that these advances are reflected regionally and internationally.”

Dr. Mounir Hamdi, Dean of HBKU’s College of Science and Engineering, added: "The forum provided a very useful opportunity to hear about data collection methodologies and metrics used by the various university ranking organizations and gave attendees a valuable insight into how specific academic and research performance indicators impact a university's rankings.”

Presentations and discussions led by the providers and publishers of global higher education content targeted issues faced by universities in the region and offered those in attendance with background information on reputational rankings. Phillip J. Purnell, Director of Research and Publishing Services, from Times Higher Education, shared information on the history of university rankings, explaining the evolution of indicators and providing context to the methodology used today, and drs. Coen van der Krogt, Regional Director of Research Intelligence at Elsevier, offered attendees advice on how to make comparisons in ranking systems and improve their position.  

Ashwin Fernandes, Regional Director of QS, an international information specialist in the higher education sector, highlighted how ratings can be utilized as tools to improve transparency and accountability in a global market of higher education and shed light on the QS World and Arab Region university rankings. Lastly, Oleg Solonyev, Editor at Round University Ranking, a Russian-based ranking system, spoke in-detail about data resources used by their agency to assess universities in their teaching, research, international diversity, and financial sustainability, as well as their analysis on education in the Arab region and global trends.

Participants were given the opportunity to network with the representatives and also take a tour of HBKU’s buildings and the Qatar Foundation Visitor Center.