Egyptian Public Universities' Performance in the Most Prominent International Rankings: Challenges and Methods to Promotion

Abstract

Purpose: The study aims to focus on the most influential rankings characteristics and determine the Egyptian public universities' position in those rankings by analyzing the indicators that cause a decline in their performance and comparing them with the Arab and international universities to suggest practical ways to upgrade their ranks.
Study design/ methodology/ approach:  Cluster analysis is used to identify the Arab universities that have similar characteristics in their performance.  Discriminant analysis is also used to determine the indicators of the lowest performance of Egyptian universities, which makes a significant difference between universities in Egypt and international universities, and to analyze what is behind the abstract numbers using the case study method in presenting reasons for the decline in the Egyptian universities’ performance.
Sample and data: The study uses a sample of 120 universities, i.e. the top 100 international universities and all 20 Egyptian universities to conduct cluster analysis, and all 47 Arab and Egyptian universities to perform discriminant analysis.
Results: The results show a decline that is caused by scientific research funding, the number of researchers, and specialists in the fields of Fields and Nobel Prizes, patent holders, citation and international publication, and internationalization and academic exchanges.
Originality/value: The study applies the quantitative analysis of Egyptian public universities’ position within the global and Arab environment to determine the indicators of the lowest performance of Egyptian universities and so propose the practical mechanisms that would improve the Egyptian universities’ reputation.
Research limitations/implications: The study conducts quantitative analysis only on THE, as the scarcity of Egyptian universities in ARWU and special QS rank for the Arab universities. The study also focuses on analyzing the performance of Egyptian universities up until 2019, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic avoiding its impact on the indicators of university performance.