Best in region: Saudi universities stay ahead

June 14, 2015

Dhahran, Jun 14: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) has been ranked first among the region’s Top 100 universities, according to QS World University Rankings 2015.

According to the report, the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), King Saud University (Riyadh) and King Abdul Aziz University (Jeddah) followed respectively.

Despite its name, KFUPM offers courses in a wide array of subjects, covering traditional disciplines as well as fields of engineering, science and business.

In the QS World University Rankings for 2015, the university is ranked among the world’s Top 200 institutions for computer science, mathematics, statistics and operational research, chemical engineering, civil and structural engineering, electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering.

It also ranks in the global Top 400 for chemistry.

The rankings compare the Top 800 universities globally across four broad areas of interest for prospective students, including research, teaching, employability and international outlook.

Four key areas are assessed using six indicators, each of which is given a different percentage weighting.

Four of the indicators are based on hard data, including student-to-faculty ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio (5 percent), and international student ratio (5 percent).

The remaining two indicators are based on major global surveys, one of which is the reputation of academics (40 percent) and another regarding the reputation of employers (10 percent).

“With one of the fastest-growing higher education systems in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia offers a number of world-class institutions,” said the report.

“Eight Saudi universities were ranked in the QS World University Rankings 2014/15, and the nation claims 12 of the Top 100 universities in the Arab region, in the QS University Rankings: Arab Region 2015.”

The report pointed out that facilities at the leading universities in Saudi Arabia are second-to-none, thanks to the nation’s ongoing and significant investment in higher education.

Saudi Arabia’s rapid development over the last 50 years has had a strong impact on trade, business, tourism, education, technology, transport, architecture and culture, particularly within the key cities, said the report.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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