Two of the Kingdom’s public universities were placed among the top 700 higher education institutions in the QS World University Rankings issued this week. Both the University of Jordan (UJ) and Jordan University of Science and Technology were placed in the 601+ cluster, the ranking showed. Mutaz Debi, head of the UJ electronic website noted that although the UJ came in the last cluster, “this is considered a good ranking, because this is the first time we participated in this world ranking”. “We still aspire for a better ranking next year and are working more on the required criteria to improve our position,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone yesterday. The QS World University Rankings currently consider over 2,000 universities in the world and evaluate 700, using six indicators. These include academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty per student, proportion of international students and percentage of international faculty. According to the ranking, published on http://www.topuniversities.com, the University of Cambridge in the UK topped world universities, followed by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. Four Saudi universities were among the 700 top universities: King Saud University (200), King Fahd University (221), King Khalid University (451) and Umm Al Qura University (501+). Other Arab universities included in the ranking are the American University of Beirut (300) and Cairo University (501). QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) is an information specialist in the higher education sector. Its mission is to enable motivated people to fulfil their potential by fostering educational achievement, international mobility and career development, according to the website.