National University of Science and Technology (NU) hosted an Academic Rankings Colloquium – QS Ranking on Thursday, 27 February 2025 from 11:00 am and 12:45 pm in Lecture Hall-1 (First Floor), College of Pharmacy, NU HQ, Bousher.
Dr Waleed Al Rajhi, Dean, Administration and Quality Management, University of Nizwa (UoN), along with his ranking team of 4 members, shared his experience in the perspective of UoN focussing on challenges and opportunities in advancing in the QS Arab Region Ranking. Dr Tayba Al Hilali, Head of QA, University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) along with her QS Ranking team member attended this event as invited guests.
Dr Mohammed Al Ghenaimi, Deputy Director, Community Engagement commenced the proceedings with his opening remarks where he reiterated that World Academic Rankings such as QS and Times Higher Education (THE) and others, make an impact on reputation, funding opportunities, and student recruitment etc..
His Excellency Dr Ali Saud Al Bimani, Vice-Chancellor, NU delivered the welcome address and introduced the speaker of the day Dr Waleed Al Rajhi, Dean, Administration and Quality Management, UoN. Dr Ali reported that Dr Waleed held various roles including Head of the Nephrology Nursing Programme and Assistant Dean for Academic Support Services and Student Affairs. He has teaching experience at the University of Central Lancashire and Cardiff University, UK.
Subsequently, Prof Dr R V Murali, in-charge of NU Ranking Projects, gave a brief overview of the NU Ranking Projects and Statuses as of today. He mentioned that this presentation would be a precursor to the main presentation. He presented the QS ranking results of NU for the last 5 years and shared comparative statistics of the performance of Omani HEIs in the recent version (2025) of QS ranking. He then invited the speaker of the day Dr Waleed Al Rajhi to share his experience of UoN ranking with the audience.
Dr Waleed started his presentation by showing the key ranking agencies in which QS is rated as the most trusted brand in higher education. He further listed the benefits of world ranking and also analysed the issues associated with QS Ranking. He then explained various rankings the UoN is currently participating and relevant steps/efforts on how to prepare, consolidate and validate data with a special focus on the indicator ‘Academic Reputation’ which is survey-based. This session was followed by a lengthy Q/A and specific discussion. Taget audience posed a number of discussion questions and clarifications and Dr Waleed’s responses and views to those queries were very insightful and informative.
Finally, Prof Dr Khalid Al Balushi, Dean of College of Pharmacy,NU thanked the guest speaker of the day Dr Waleed for his kind acceptance to visit NU and share his experience on Ranking Projects at UoN. He also thanked the NU Executives, Ranking Committee members, Participants, Event Organisers and Supporting Departments and Units for their untiring efforts to make this event a memorable and useful one.