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With a huge range of options for Higher Education available and so much information for each, it can be incredibly difficult to determine which university is the best fit.

Students and their families want to be sure that their university of choice is a credible and established institution, which consistently produces high achieving and employable graduates. With the employment landscape becoming increasingly competitive, reputation, employability and academic merit are therefore key factors when making these tough decisions. But how do you know which are the most well-regarded and high achieving institutions – not only locally, but around the world?

Each university will of course be keen to talk about its highlights and the advantages to prospective students and families. In addition, there may well be regional, or country-wide, listings available, as well as rankings pulled together by third party organisations in the industry that can be found in magazines and online. This wealth of information, which is often conflicting, only contributes to general confusion for many. It’s particularly concerning when many of these listings are not truly independent and are relative to the advertising spend of the institution with that particular organisation or media outlet.

Luckily, there are a number of credible, well-established and truly independent listings that give a clear indication of the institution’s global reputation and quality and provide a reliable metric for evaluation and comparison. The most well-known of these is the QS World University Rankings, which launched in 2004 as an annual publication of university rankings and is now the most widely read university rankings in the world. The list comprises the global overall and subject rankings, alongside independent regional tables.

These rankings collect and analyse comparative data from tens of thousands of institutions around the world to form the annual listing. When it comes to universities in the UAE, there are a number of institutions that featured highly within the Top 100 of the QS World Rankings 2021, including NYU at 35^th, Sorbonne University at 83^rd, and University of Birmingham at 87^th. Meanwhile, within the Top 500 globally, Woolongong came in at 196^th and the American University of Sharjah at 348^th. 

Other global rankings of note include the US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings – a list of the world’s top 1,500 universities, which, for 2021, placed NYU at 29^th, Sorbonne University at 43^rd, and the University of Birmingham at 96^th. Meanwhile, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), rated NYU at 26^th, Sorbonne University at 35^th, and University of Birmingham 92^nd out of 1,500 global universities.

This recognition of quality for education institutions in the UAE is incredibly reassuring for students looking to study in the country, and supports the country’s drive to strengthen a knowledge-based economy, underpinned by a higher education system where students are assured their qualifications are of a high standard and recognised across the globe.

Never has this been more important than in the current climate, as students can now refrain from additional travel, and safely remain in the UAE, whilst at the same time, still obtaining the same level of education and academic experience. Prospective students have access to a first-class education from an elite university in a safe and secure environment, allowing them to graduate as high achieving and employable problem solvers, all without leaving the Emirates.