The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, published annually since 2004, is based on 13 performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: Teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Six local universities entered the 2023 list for the first time, seven made progress in their positions, and six maintained their rankings.

The Kingdom now has its leading university just one place short of the world’s top-100 higher education institutions.

King Abdulaziz University is now 101 in the world, a massive jump from 190 in last year’s ranking.

This was followed by King Fahd University of Petroleum in group 201-250 and King Saud University in the 251-300 group.

Al-Faisal University ranked fourth in group 301-350, University of Hail in 351-400, with Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University entering the classification for the first time, also in the 351-400 group.

This was followed by Jazan University, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Majmaah University, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University and Taif University.

The classification depends on several indicators including innovation, number of doctorates and bachelor’s degrees, university’s income, reputation in research, research income, annual research papers, citations annually, international diversity and learning environment.

According to the website of the rankings body, the University of Oxford is in first place for the seventh consecutive year. Harvard University remains in second place, but the University of Cambridge jumps from joint fifth last year to joint third.

The US is the most-represented country overall, with 177 institutions, and also the most represented in the top 200 (58).

Mainland China now has the fourth-highest number of institutions in the top 200 (11 compared with 10 last year), having overtaken Australia, which has dropped to fifth (joint with the Netherlands).