Saudi university among the world's best 200

A renowned university in Saudi Arabia entered the club of the world's best 200 academic institutions according to the Spanish international classification system "Webometrics," which also ranked the university as the first in Arab and Islamic Worlds for web visibility.

King Saud University (KSU) ranked 197 worldwide and the first in the Arab and Islamic university world for its Internet dissemination of scientific knowledge, reaching a wider audience of researchers and institutions with its advanced web policy, according to the Webometrics Ranking of World's Universities.

In 2007 KSU occupied the 3259th place, and in July 2008 it came in at the 380th place, finally reaching the 292nd place in 2009 in an unprecedented jump for an Arab and Islamic university ever. For Asia, KSU was the 21st.

KSU's record achievement was attributed to its diversified development scheme that aimed to advance its nano program and satellite labs as well as its renowned recruitment policy that allows for partnering with the best scientists including Nobel laureates.

Following KSU, four other Saudi universities occupied the top five placements with Cairo University coming in at the 6th place.

Webometrics is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research project devoted to the quantitative analysis of the Internet and Web contents specially those related to the processes of generating scholarly communication of scientific knowledge.