Saudi-based center ranks Hebrew U. number 1 in Mideast, 26th in world

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was ranked as the best university in the Middle East, according to the Center for World University Rankings based in Saudi Arabia.

The center also ranked the university 26th among more than 25,000 degree-conferring universities from all over the world, it announced in a statement Monday. Other Israeli universities to finish in the top 100 were the Weizmann Institute of Science, at 41, and Tel Aviv University, at 81, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Among the factors considered in rating the world’s top 1,000 universities were quality of education and faculty; Hebrew University placed 16th and 15th, respectively. Other categories were alumni employment, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents.

The top 10 schools were all either from the United States or the United Kingdom, with Harvard ranked first followed by Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Princeton and Yale.

US News and World Report ranked Hebrew University 159th in its 2015 world rankings, second in Israel behind the Weizmann Institute.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded in 1918, is said to produce one-third of all civilian research in Israel.