https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1435-5318
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Abstract
The main objective of the current study is to establish a justifiable data-driven students-faculty ratio (SFR) benchmark for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Sultanate of Oman. This is established based on analyzing selected secondary data from three sources using purposive sampling. This study reflects quantitative research adopting descriptive analysis (frequency and percentage). The three sources of data used to arrive at this national benchmark are: (1) World Bank Open Data, (2) Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings, and (3) THE (Times Higher Education) University Rankings. Based on 13 data points, the simple (unweighted) average SFR for Oman is 19.04. The current study recommends an upper limit of 30 students per academic full time faculty member in Omani HEIs. When the most-recent records in the World Bank Open Data portal for the 22 Arab League countries were averaged, a regional benchmark of 24.82 was obtained (which decreases to 17.00 if a subset of the six Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, countries is considered). The seven HEIs (all are universities) that received a rank in the latest edition (2024 edition) of QS Arab Region University Rankings (QS-AUR) were among the data points considered in the analysis. These QS ranking results were published online on 18/October/2023, with a total of 223 ranked Arab HEIs. The five HEIs (four universities and one standalone university college) that either received a rank (only Sultan Qaboos University, or SQU) or were recognized as a reporter without being qualified enough to officially receive a rank in the latest edition (2024 edition) of THE World University Rankings (THE-WUR) were also considered in the analysis. These THE ranking results were published online on 27/September/2023, with a total of 1,904 ranked HEIs worldwide. As a secondary objective, the study assesses the level of mismatch in the SFR value for four Omani universities that appeared in the 2024 edition of both QS-AUR and THE-WUR. The percentage of mismatch in SFR between the QS and THE values (with respect to the average of the two values) for each of these four universities ranged from 0.68% to 25.30%. As a tertiary objective, the study gives an overview about three popular university ranking services, which are: QS, THE, and ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as Shanghai Ranking). Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) is the only Omani HEI that received a global rank through either the QS or THE ranking service in their respective latest edition (edition 2024, released in 2023), and it is the only Omani HEI that was ever ranked by ARWU since its first edition in June 2003 (but it was not ranked in the latest ‘2023’ edition). The enrollment of Arab HEIs in the regional Arab version of THE rankings has grown faster than the regional QS counterpart when the latest 3 released editions are considered for both types of regional rankings, where the number of Arab HEIs ranked in the 2023 edition (released on 15/November/2023) of the Arab version of THE rankings (having 207 ranked Arab HEIs) is notably higher than its value in the earlier 2021 edition released on 27/July/2021 (having 125 ranked Arab HEIs).
REVIEWING EDITOR:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Publicly available data were analyzed in this study, as described by the relevant cited references or the main text.
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Notes on contributors
Osama Marzouk
Osama Marzouk is an Assistant Professor (the British equivalent is “Lecturer”) of Mechanical Engineering, with concurrent non-teaching duties related to institutional accreditation in higher education, higher education program development, and quality assurance in higher education.