International ranking of universities between Western fact and Moroccan and Arab aspirations

Abstract

Since the end of the nineteenth century, many international rankings of universities are established. Universities, research centers, newspapers, and websites have taken care of developing these rankings، Based on a set of standards and indicators related to scientific production, faculty and students, education quality, graduate employment, and university performance presented through their websites.

The increasing interest in these rankings, by every stakeholder in the educational, scientific and research sector is due to the impact of these rankings on the attraction and reputation and consequently on the sustainability of the university model. Indeed, these rankings reflects the level of scientific progress reached by universities and the countries where they are located in. In this paper, we review and discuss the situation of Arab world universities rankings with a special focus on the Moroccan universities. So, what are the characteristics and the specifications of this situation? Moreover, to what extent can Moroccan universities catch up with these rankings, despite all the existing challenges?