Safa Jafari, Office of Communications, [email protected]
The American University of Beirut (AUB) continues to strengthen its leadership in higher education, ranking 6th in the Arab region and 1st in Lebanon, according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) in their latest QS Arab Region University Rankings.
According to the latest edition, AUB's digital presence made an impressive leap, climbing four places to 2nd in the web impact category, which measures the strength and reach of an institution's online footprint. The university also secured 5th place in employer reputation and 8th in academic reputation, reflecting its strong standing among employers and academic peers across the region.
This strong performance comes despite increased competition. The addition of 82 new university entrants in the 2026 edition has marked a 17 percent increase in the number of ranked universities, which means AUB is 6th out of a total of 298 institutions region-wide.
Recognized as one of the most trusted and widely consulted university rankings worldwide, the QS university rankings provide students, institutions, and employers with world and region-specific insights based on comprehensive evaluations. The QS Arab region ranking methodology uses ten indicators with the following weightings: academic reputation (30 percent), employer reputation (20 percent), faculty-student ratio (15 percent), web impact (5 percent), international research network (10 percent), papers per faculty (5 percent), citations per paper (5 percent), percent of faculty with PhD (5 percent), percent of international faculty (2.5 percent), and percent of international students (2.5 percent).
Since the launch of the QS Arab Region University Rankings in 2014, AUB has consistently ranked among the top universities in the region.
Global Research Impact
Further marking its global research impact, AUB's place has advanced in the National Taiwan University (NTU) Rankings — also known as the “Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities." AUB rose from the “601–650" bracket in 2023 to 499th place in the 2024 edition, and further to 498th out of 2,025 rigorously selected universities worldwide in 2025, marking a notable achievement in research performance. In the NTU rankings, AUB is 8th in the region and 1st in Lebanon.
Introduced in 2007, the NTU rankings evaluate research output through normalized, ratio-based, or size-independent indicators, such as average citation rates, and the h-index. Like the QS rankings, the NTU rankings are recognized as among the leading global research-focused ranking systems. The NTU Rankings specifically emphasize scientific paper performance, evaluating universities based on three main criteria represented by eight indicators: research productivity (25 percent), research impact (35 percent), and research excellence (40 percent).
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