General of the International Advisory Board of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, said that KFUPM's participation is distinct with all standards, and is of special interest to the organizers and the participating universities and other visitors to the Fair. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency, Dr. Al Hanaei said the University was able to enter the classification and registration of an advanced level this year, indicating that this is an unusual accomplishment in such classifications. As of October 2008, Times Higher Education-QS (THE-QS) World University Rankings (WUR) placed KFUPM amongst the top 400 universities around the world. To be exact, KFUPM is ranked at the 338th position. KFUPM is the first and the only University in the Middle East to ever enter this ranking. The Rankings identified 4 pillars upon which a world-class university can be built, and, as an evaluation, used them as criteria under which indicators have been chosen to rank universities globally. These criteria are: Research Quality, Teaching Quality, Employability of Alumni, and International Outlook.
