Pressure to fix KAAU ranking alleged

JEDDAH: The director of the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has accused a senior official of the King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU) in Jeddah of threatening to dismiss him from his university adviser’s post if the KAAU ranking was not raised, local media reported.
Nadim Mahasen, director of CWUR, said the KAAU official asked about the ranking of the university before it was published. “The university official told me to choose between the university or CWUR post,” he alleged.
He said the rankings issued by CWUR are accredited worldwide and all international universities endorse them when it is published. “The University of Texas at Austin, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, San Diego, University of Washington School of Public Health and the Pennsylvania State University ... all adopt the rankings and refer to them when it is published.”
Mahasen said the center has been issuing the rankings since 2012 by listing the top 100 universities of the world and that a number of international newspapers and websites refer to them.
He said the center adopts accurate criteria to measure the quality of teaching and training and faculty members and their researches, without depending on the data provided by the universities.
Sharei Al-Baqmi, spokesman of the KAAU, said the university is in no way connected with the CWUR. “The accusations are personal and directed at the deputy vice chancellor of the university and only he can respond to them,” he said.