The allegation in a recent Science Magazine article that two leading Saudi universities had paid for higher international rankings was unfair, said Dr. Saad Saeed Al-Zahrani, Assistant Secretary General for Quality Assurance and Accreditation at the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA). The NCAAA falls under the Ministry of Higher Education and is responsible for assessing the academic and financial performance of the country's universities. Al-Zahrani said the prestigious American magazine will be invited to further investigate the matter with King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh and King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah, the two institutions mentioned in the article. The Science Magazine article had alleged that top American and United Kingdom academics were being paid money by the universities to use their names. This allegedly allowed the two universities to rise rapidly in the world rankings. Al-Zahrani said the international ratings for the universities were not important and have nothing to do with local education issues. He said Saudi universities face a number of financial and teaching challenges because of rising student numbers and inadequate research budgets. He said KAU and KSU can take the matter further. “These two universities are distinguished for being prominent education institutions in the country. I believe that they can summon the magazine to probe the facts of the matter.” He said the NCAAA constantly evaluates universities on their scientific research, teaching and community service. He said the organization cannot react to rumors. Al-Zahrani said the organization usually takes around 10 weeks to assess the activities of a university. This includes conducting personal interviews with the teaching staff, students, registrars, graduates and business owners. “We then file our report about the academic performance of the university. We investigate and probe in-depth to produce a fair evaluation.” He said universities should not occupy themselves with ratings. They should concentrate on ways to upgrade the quality of their teaching. __
