For the first time ever, AKSOB’s Business and Economics programs placed at No. 1 in Lebanon according to the Times Higher Education (THE) Subject Rankings, reflecting the quality and impact of its research, and caliber of its academic staff. LAU’s overall ranking for Citations per Paper at 171st worldwide further attested to the relevance and strength of the institution’s research.

In total, this year’s table included 729 universities, up from 632 last year. Using the same rigorous performance indicators as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, the ranking assessed the universities’ performance in the discipline which included business and management, accounting and finance, and economics and econometrics.

However, the overall methodology has been carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit individual fields.

LAU President Michel E. Mawad congratulated the Adnan Kassar School of Business, its faculty, staff, students, and graduates, for their resilience and commitment to academic excellence. The “THE ranking reflects the concerted effort and perseverance shown by the school to uphold LAU’s pioneering role in business education for decades,” he said.

Falling directly in line with AKSOB’s strategic vision, this is another recognition that will only drive the AACSB-accredited school to set the bar higher.

Commending the success achieved by the school’s faculty and administrative staff, Dr. Wassim Shahin, Dean of AKSOB, noted that “the BS in Business Administration classification includes all the school’s programs, such as management, marketing, finance, accounting, hospitality and tourism management, and information technology”.

He also stressed the unique quality of the BS in Economics offered by the school. “The economics program is the only AACSB-accredited program in Lebanon and prepares students for diverse job opportunities and graduate schools with brilliant acumen in business and applied disciplines”.

“The school is also implementing its strategic survival plan, which includes AACSB re-accreditation, specific programs accreditation, the introduction of new graduate degrees and expanding our strategic business and educational partnerships,” he added.

To come up with the results, THE employed numerous weightings including teaching or the learning environment (30.9 percent); research in terms of volume, income and reputation (32.6 percent); citations, which reflect the influence of the institution’s research (25 percent); international outlook in staff, students and research (9 percent); and industry income or innovation (2.5 percent).

Furthermore, to qualify for the THE subject rankings, a university must satisfy a publication threshold as well as an academic staff threshold by discipline.

For business and economics, the threshold is 200 published papers over the past five years. “The Faculty members of AKSOB across various disciplines are heavily publishing in the top ranked Scopus and Web of Sciences academic Journals with a high-level of citations and impact,” said Dr. Shahin.

This ranking comes on the heels of another study, the 2020 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which placed LAU among the top 10 universities in the Arab World for excellence in Business and Management studies.

AKSOB’s top ranking in the THE, said Provost George E. Nasr “exemplifies LAU’s steady pursuit of academic excellence and its positioning as a leading institution of higher learning in the region, in spite of the multiple challenges and crises Lebanon and the university are facing.”