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Egyptian Universities in Knowledge Society and Improving their Ranking in the World University Rankings

The aim of the current research was to identify the most prominent World Rankings, explaining the criteria and indicators on which each ranking is based, and to clarify the role of universities in the knowledge society, and the relation of this society to World Rankings; in order to improve universities rankings in light of the knowledge society. To this aim, the descriptive method was adopted in this research. The research covered the most important World University Rankings: the Shanghai, Webometrics, QS and Times due to their spread and reputation in the international academic community, presenting their criteria and indicators. The research tackled also the role of universities in the knowledge society and its relationship to the World Rankings. Finally, the research addressed how to improve the university rankings in three axes: human resources, scientific research and information and communication technology. Human resources, which represent faculty members and researchers, can improve the ranking of universities through preparing faculty members and researchers at the educational, research and experimental level, and rehabilitating and developing their language, technical and academic skills. As for scientific research, universities ranking can be improved through encouraging international publication in specialized scientific journals, establishing specialized research centers and promoting interdisciplinary research; which creates an innovative and creative environment conducive to excellence. With regard to information technology, universities ranking can be improved through the management of electronic references and information, modernization of electronic portals of universities, and building digital content of the courses and transforming them into interactive electronic courses.


Introduction
The University is a center of knowledge and enlightenment of thought as well as a basis for the development of society. This makes it necessary for the university to play a role in contributing to the building of a knowledge society in our country, as well as re-evaluate its performance to determine its ability to survive in the global competition. The global rankings of universities have become a means to enhance that competition, the motive for change in universities, and a factor to attract students to join them. This is due to the role of global rankings that gives universities a global reputation, and puts them in the list of the best outstanding universities in the world; through evaluating them on the basis of certain criteria and agreed indicators by a number of international institutions that are responsible for universities ranking.
Global rankings of universities play a pivotal role in making higher education institutions more global, achieving greater quality in teaching, increasing their productivity of scientific research and making the best use of human as well as material resources, in addition to their role in measuring quality through measuring the institutional performance of teaching, scientific research and community service (7), developing the research and academic performance of universities, and protecting them from stagnation and decline.
As when a university feels that it is the only one that provides educational and research services without the presence of other competing universities, this leads to laziness to renew and develop its activities and programs in order to keep pace with the developments of the age of scientific and technological progress. The rankings also push universities to learn about and benefit from the experiences of advanced universities, maintain their human cadres, reduce human capital flight (brain drain), and direct and manage research towards community service (8) .
Despite the importance of the rankings in the internationalization and competitiveness of universities, most Egyptian universities are either outside or lag behind in international rankings, as a result of the fact that universities' scientific research do not tackle real problems, their focus on their educational mission at the expense of their research one, the lack of production of new knowledge, the failure of the university scientific research to pursue the latest achievements of advanced technology, reliance on the individual efforts of the faculty members, the absence of the private sector's support for scientific research, the predominance of formalities, routines and appearances in quality works rather than the spirit and thought of quality itself (9). present in the Shanghai ranking. The National Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation explained the need to increase Egypt's production of knowledge and to raise the world rankings in the 40 best countries in the world in international publishing (13).
Through examining the websites of the world's top rankings of universities during the year (2017-2018), it was found that only three Egyptian universities appeared in the Shanghai and QS rankings, namely: Cairo University, Ain Shams University and Alexandria University, in the late range of (401-500) and (701-800). While, in the webometrics ranking of world universities, several Egyptian universities have appeared, the top of which was Cairo university (746/11998), followed by Alexandria university (1204/11998), and the rest of the universities were in late rankings. Similarly, the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, a limited number of Egyptian universities appeared. The highest ranking was in the range of (601-800). That makes clear the absence of a large number of the Egyptian Universities in Shanghai and QS rankings, and the existence of some in the late rankings in the two other rankings. Thus, Egyptian universities should recognize the importance of being present and prove themselves internationally, so that they can withstand in that trend.
Based on the above-mentioned studies, it is clear that most of the reasons for the absence and low ranking of universities in the world rankings are due to the role of the cognitive aspect, such as the international publishing, the knowledge and the research production of faculty members, and the role of the technological aspect in raising the ranking of universities in the world rankings.
The findings of the study of (Ahmad: 2016) aimed to clarify the role of the cognitive and technological aspect in improving the ranking of Egyptian universities in the world rankings (14) . Besides, the recommendations of the international conference entitled "University Education in the Knowledge Society: Opportunities and Challenges" which called for the development of universities and their improvement to cope up with the constantly developing reality for building research universities, and preparing the student-researcher who is the producer of new knowledge and its technical application, as well as to maximize the role of e-learning with an interest in developing the skills of the faculty members, making use of the Central Library and connecting it to the international information network (15) .
Hence, the overall aim of the present research lies in identifying the world's most prominent rankings and their criteria and indicators, the role of universities in the knowledge society and the relationship to the global rankings of universities, and how to improve the ranking of universities in light of the knowledge society.

Research questions
1. What are the most prominent world university rankings and the criteria and indicators on which they depend?

2.
What is the role of universities in light of the knowledge society, and the relationship of that to the world university rankings?
3. How can universities be improved in world rankings in light of the knowledge society?

Research objectives
The current research aims to identify the most prominent world university rankings, presenting the criteria and indicators on which each ranking is built, and to clarify the role of universities in the knowledge society, in order to improve their ranking world university rankings in light of the knowledge society.

World Rankings of Universities.
It is an international standard of excellence for the ranking of higher education institutions (16) . From an academic point of view, it is defined as the extent to which the university conforms to the criteria that have been established as the basis for evaluation, which helps to identify the level of the university, the programs it offers and the scientific activities available therein, and to preserve the competitive position of the university among other universities (17) . Finally, it is operationally defined as a set of criteria and indicators agreed on by the international bodies and institutions, and the statistics and surveys applied by students, graduates, the labor market and the outside community, whose performance is assessed and ranked in a descending order in the rankings lists according to the best performance.

Knowledge Society.
The Arab Human Development Report defines it as a society that is essentially based on the publishing, production and functionalization of knowledge effectively in all areas of community activity, namely economy, civil society, politics, private life, and improvement of the human condition, all of that means the establishment of human development (18) . It is also a group of people with similar interests, seeking to generate knowledge, create a culture of knowledge and share it, and develop applications that work through knowledge mechanisms, relying on information and communication technology, to achieve the development of the individual and society (19) . It can be operationally defined as a society based on the production, generation, use and dissemination of knowledge by faculty members and graduate students of universities when conducting scientific research, through modern technologies, in order to improve their ranking in the world rankings of universities.

Research methodology
The current research adopts the descriptive method due to its relevance to the nature of the research. It increases the understanding of the educational phenomenon, helps reach the facts about the present circumstances, and also develop important relationships between current phenomena and interpretation of the data (20) to identify the most prominent world rankings of universities, their standards and indicators, and to clarify the role of universities in the knowledge society, and so; to improve their ranking in the world rankings in light of that society.

Review of Literature
A huge body of Arab and foreign literature has focused on ways to reform, develop and promote university education, while there are a few studies on the world ranking of the Egyptian universities. Also, the studies which explored the topic of knowledge society focused on evaluating universities in light of the knowledge society, as well as the role of university education in building a knowledge society, while those studies did not address the level and status of universities globally under the knowledge society. In addition, there are no studies combining the global ranking of universities with the knowledge society. As a result, the current research addresses the relevant studies and the current research position among these studies. Following is a review of the most important previous studies related to the current research topic, which have been classified into two axes as follows:  The first axis: studies on the world rankings of universities.
 The second axis: studies on the knowledge society. The first axis: studies on the world rankings of universities Using the descriptive analytical method, Muhammad (2016) aimed to identify the reality of Egyptian universities, especially the University of Mansoura to identify the obstacles that prevent the Egyptian universities from reaching the ranks of top-ranked world universities, and the most important educational requirements necessary to upgrade the ranking of the Egyptian universities in the world rankings. The study revealed a number of important findings represented in the existence of a number of obstacles that that prevent the Egyptian universities from reaching the ranks of the top-ranked world universities: namely the physical and technological obstacles, human obstacles, and international publication obstacles. Also, a number of educational requirements necessary to upgrade the ranking of the Egyptian universities in the world rankings were reached, namely the physical and technological requirements, human requirements, academic requirements, and scientific and practical requirements (21) .
In addition, the study of Tuhami & Yassin (2012) aimed to identify the international criteria and indicators of the ranking of universities and research centers, the reality of the ranking of Egyptian universities in the lists of world rankings, and the reasons for the absence of Egyptian universities from those rankings. To this end, the present study adopted the descriptive method. The most important findings of the study included the need to update the university's, coordinate with the international journals website to publish research, and develop a comprehensive research plan. The findings also revealed the need to develop procedures and facilities to raise the percentage of enrolled students in graduate studies, and the need to introduce programs that meet the needs of the labor market, as well as interest in training human Additionally, the Study of Tiwari & Yeravdekar (2014) aimed to survey and examine research that investigated the world rankings of universities, identify the reasons why Indian universities did not appear in these rankings. To this aim, the survey method was utilized, and the study tool was to analyze the previous studies. A number of findings were reached, the most important of which are: the existence of deficiencies in the higher education system in India which made it outside the world rankings of universities, such as the lack of production of scientific knowledge, lack of scientific research, the small number of research publications in international journals with a high impact factor, and the weakness of the academic system as well as teaching at building a knowledge society, and presenting proposals to activate the role of emerging universities in the localization of the knowledge society. To this aim, the study adopted the descriptive analytical method. The study findings showed the necessity of including the knowledge needs of the community among the research priorities, marketing and publishing the findings of research. The study developed some proposals, the most important of which is planning the role of the university in building the knowledge society. This planning includes a set of aspects, such as planning for strategic policies, planning to provide information infrastructure and access to knowledge, planning for building the human and institutional capacity, and planning for information cooperation (25) .
Adopting also the descriptive analytical method, the study of Al-Yahya The study adopted the descriptive analytical method. The study reached a number of results, the most important of which was that there are factors that contribute to the exchange of knowledge and its application, including: the network of social relations among the members of the knowledge society, such as the students and professors and the extent to which they use technology contribute to building, applying and sharing knowledge, and self-efficacy in the use of the internet represents a motivation for a higher level of performance.
The findings showed also the need to develop a training policy for developing students' technological skills as well as their ability to discover and exploit knowledge in the virtual community (27) .
Besides, the study of Hoffman & Valimaa (2008) aimed to analyze the role of higher education in the light of the knowledge society, identify the current challenges facing higher education, especially in the field of scientific research, and identify the changes in higher education and scientific research resulting from the knowledge society at the national, regional and global level.
The study findings revealed that the knowledge society became one of the most widespread concepts, especially in post-industrial and post-modern societies, there are challenges facing higher education institutions in the knowledge society, namely the lack of knowledge production to experimental research to diagnose the present time needs, the scarcity of studies addressing the issues of the near future, the lack of information technology studies on networking and publishing facts, and the lack of interest in the practical life of the human resources which they deal with in terms of their preparation and training (28) .

General commentary
The current research is in agreement with previous studies in dealing with the topic of world ranking of universities. The absence of Egyptian universities from most rankings as illustrated by the study of (Said & Yassin, 2012). It is also in consistency with the study of (Mohammed, 2016) in the existence of human technological and research obstacles that hinder university's existence in world rankings. This study benefited the current research in identifying the three axes resulted from the poor knowledge production of universities and which make them absent from those rankings, such as the Indian universities, as indicated by the study of (Tiwari & Yeravdekar, 2013). As high productivity of research leads to higher ranking, as shown in the study of (Fung, 2007).
The present research benefited also from the studies that investigated the topic of knowledge society, such as the study of (Al-Yahya, 2016) which explored the role of universities in building a knowledge society, in addition to the studies of (Hamdi, 2016) and (Hoffman & Valima, 2008) which focused on the three themes of the knowledge society, which were utilized to improve the ranking of universities, although they are the same criteria of most of the world rankings.
Theoretical framework.

First: The most prominent world rankings of universities.
There are many world rankings of universities, which differ in the criteria and indicators on which they depend in the evaluation and comparison process among universities. The current research was limited to addressing the world's top rankings of universities. They are as follows:

Shanghai Ranking.
One of the world's most popular university rankings, and it is a Chinese ranking that appeared in July 2003 as the first that published the world's universities rankings. This ranking is published annually by Jiao Tong Shanghai University of China, known as Shanghai Jiao Tang University, and is called the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is referred to as ARWU, and is considered by scientists to be the most objective, impartial, unbiased ranking, and one of the most widely accepted in academia (28) . It examines (2000) universities in the world out of approximately (10,000) universities registered in UNESCO that had the initial qualifications for the competition.
The second step of the examination is the ranking of (1,000) universities, which are again subject to competition for a position in the best (500) universities in September each year (30) . The first (100)  This ranking has attracted the attention of universities, governments and the media around the world, and several universities have strived to meet its ranking criteria to become among the so-called elite universities. The Chinese universities have reformulated their strategic objectives taking into account the ranking criteria. This ranking is characterized by many points: the ranking's devoid of any commercial objectives, the independence of the institute responsible for ranking, the low ranking of Chinese universities (outside the top 100 universities in the world), and the progress of Taiwanese universities in this ranking despite the sensitivity of relations between the two countries during the last five years, the reliance of the ranking on data that can be accessed at any time easily, the detailed publication of the final results of each issue, as well as the transparency of the procedures followed in the ranking () , and this rankingis based on four main criteria, as indicated in the following table (3) . Science.

Webometrics Ranking
It is a world ranking issued by the International Spanish Cybermetrics Lab, a unit of the National Research Centre in Spain, known as the Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). It is linked to the Ministry of Education in Madrid, and contains a research group of specialists in international network data. Its mission is to observe the scientific and academic research activities and scientific publications of universities on the Internet (4) . It is issued semiannually since 2004 in the months of (January / July) each year. This ranking covers more than (17000) institutions of higher education around the world, including about (500) Arab universities, and ranks the first (12000) universities in the world. It also ranks the first 100 universities by continent or region (35).
After completing the initial ranking process and in order to amend the report and its errors, a catalogue of world universities is published through the Spanish website attached to it a request of information on the errors or gaps that each university sees in its data so that it can adjust their ranking before the final report is announced. Many countries responded by explaining that there are other universities -in these countries-that have not been included in the rankings, changes in the websites (URL)of these universities, in addition to many other mistakes that the Cybermetrics Lab can correct. Indonesia is one of these countries, whose universities has become well covered by Spanish Webometrics ranking (36) .
The importance of this ranking lies in the vital and growing role of websites in the dissemination of scientific research through the so-called E-Journals, in addition to ease, speed, low cost, and accessibility at all times and anywhere. These sites also show the activities of professors and researchers, and allow the possibility of contacting between them and their students.
Moreover, the outcome of these factors enriches the performance of the university, and highlight its position, and this evaluation does not depend on the design of the website, nor the number of visits to it, but depends on the evaluation of the performance of universities through their websites (37) . This ranking is based on four indicators, and the following table shows the criteria and indicators of Webometrics and their relative weights (38) .

QS Ranking.
It is a ranking issued by Quaquarelli Symonds, a non-profit organization

Times Ranking
The official recognition of the Times ranking dates back to 2010, one year after its official split from the QS ranking. THE ranking is the most comprehensive and up-to-date model of past experiences in this this field according to many observers of the development in the field of world ranking of universities and based on the keenness of its operators to draw a different path than in other rankings, which is reflected in its methodology of work, and the set of indicators adopted in its evaluation of universities . The Times magazine has adopted a new methodology in the evaluation of universities after reviewing the information collected about world universities and methods of evaluation. The magazine has developed various methods to increase the accuracy, balance and transparency of the annual information schedules of universities, and has added more realistic performance indicators, and more sophisticated in-depth analysis methods. To increase credibility in its ranking of universities, the magazine relied heavily on its close collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which is considered to be the world's first in research informatics and analysis (44).
The Times ranking is considered to be among the top world rankings in the global academic community, and has a great credibility among universities, due to its reliance on five key criteria and 13 indicators, carefully selected with great interest, to reflect the comprehensiveness and balance of university activities in the performance of their academic, research and social functions, what makes it seen as the only ranking that fully measures the basic functions of the university (45) . It is based on five main criteria, shown in the following table (44) : Table (

30%
-Reflects the extent of the university's contribution to the dissemination of knowledge and is measured by identifying how often a work published by the university is referred to at the scientific level using the website databases (Thomson Reuters) which include all the sciences and magazines indexed; It means the average citations of the scientific paper according to the Thomson Reuters database, which is published in the last five years before entering the ranking.

2.5%
The university's reputation for research excellence among its counterparts is based on an annual survey of at least 10,000 academics around the world. (18%) Research & Volume,

Income and Reputation
The ratio of research production through the percentage of the research resulting from the university to the number of

‫ملجلة‬ ‫ا‬ ‫الرتبوية‬ ‫العلوم‬ ‫يف‬ ‫للبحوث‬ ‫الدولية‬
It is clear from the above-mentioned rankings that they addressed various criteria, and participated in developing some of them, most notably: the standard of scientific research and its impact on the criterion of quality of education, the website of the university, and the reputation of the university. In the Shanghai ranking and the ranking of Times, the relative weight of interest in scientific research and publishing reached (60%). In addition, The Qs ranking focused on the quality of education and the relative weight of this criterion reached (70%), distributed on the experts' evaluation, the percentage of students to faculty, the proportion of foreign students, and the percentage of foreign faculty, while webometrics' ranking is concerned with the size of the university's website and its contents from academic and research activities . (47) Second axis: the role of the University in the knowledge society, and its relationship to world rankings.

The university's role in the knowledge society.
Building a knowledge society is the main function of the University in the present era, as a result of its well-known functions in a knowledge framework that are based on the production of knowledge through research, dissemination through teaching, and its application in the service and development of the society, and these are the pillars of the knowledge society.
Although all higher education institutions should practice in the processes necessary to transform into a knowledge society, the greatest burden is mainly the responsibility of universities, because of their advanced technological capabilities, contemporary programs and curricula, qualified human cadres, and enlightened academic leaders. (48) There is no significance for university education that does not keep pace with cognitive changes, and there is no significance for a society that does not react to changes, nor contributes to its creation and development.

F. Collaboration of researchers from different universities in enriching and
developing knowledge, taking into account diversity and differences.
It is clear from the above that the university community is the leader of the knowledge revolution, as each of their processes is a practice that promotes the larger knowledge society such as: regular or electronic teaching, scientific research and publication, community service practices, student activities, units, activities and centers of quality, development of the faculty members, and the centers it has established such as: the university research center, innovation and creativity center, arts center, and strategic planning center. All of this is reflected in the quality of the graduate, who represents a conscious mind and mature knowledge that serves the community, and the quality of the faculty member who represents the source of knowledge and develops the culture of society through what he/she offers to serve the surrounding community, as well as the production and innovation of knowledge through scientific research, and its dissemination and marketing to the community as well.

Relationship of world rankings to the knowledge society.
The concept of competitiveness among universities has been associated with the emergence of local rankings and competition has intensified with the emergence of global university rankings. Competitiveness among universities depends on the ability of the institution to use the possibilities of knowledge and skills to achieve the desired progress, as competition among universities is an integral part of the competitiveness of the state, and it is based on the best use of the university's research capabilities, the production of knowledge, which contributes to the development of society, and the preparation of human resources at a high level distinct from other universities. (54).
The world-class university is: a university in the first class among the prestigious and internationally prominent academic institutions. All of worldclass universities represent research universities without exception, however world-class research universities are not necessarily distinguished. World rankings are considered as a judgment on the status of world universities (55) .
World rankings encourage universities to divide educational and research activities by intensifying the focus of research efforts and resources in areas of knowledge that are likely to generate a competitive advantage, as global ‫ملجلة‬ ‫ا‬ ‫الرتبوية‬ ‫العلوم‬ ‫يف‬ ‫للبحوث‬ ‫الدولية‬ as a percentage of gross domestic product, the ability to produce and export technology, and the number of patents in a country. (61) Based on the above, it is clear that there are axes on which the knowledge society is based, namely the axes of scientific research, human resources and information technology, which will be explained later in detail. It is also clear that there is an integration between the aforementioned axes, as good research requires human resources using modern technology. If there is integration between the three axes mentioned above, the relationship between the three axes can be represented by the following example: human resources represent a hunter of knowledge, technology represents the hunter's hook with which knowledge is hunted, and scientific research represents the taste of the hook.
The following figure illustrates this relationship.  The three axes of human resources, scientific research and technology can be improved in the context of the knowledge society:

Human resources
Since the knowledge society is largely and mainly based on human resources, and their ability to use the available information technology

Scientific research:
In light of the knowledge society, scientific research can be linked to the strategic objectives of the university and development plans in the surrounding areas of the university, the provision of a distinct research structure that helps to develop innovation skills and creativity and contribute to solve the problems faced by the government and private sector, the coordination of efforts among researchers Within the University, encouraging interdisciplinary research that will create a creative and innovative environment that helps to excel and publish research in specialized scientific journals locally and internationally, encouraging researchers to publish research in the best international journals through scientific awards, and developing a research plan and identifying the mechanisms for its activation, and the methods of presenting it to the supporters, taking advantage of the expertise of leading universities. (65) Furthermore, scientific research at the university can also be developed in the context of a knowledge society by increasing the original and specialized research production of faculty members and researchers, increasing the culture of scientific research, directing scientific research to serve the community, coordination among universities in scientific research, and supporting, nurturing and encouraging the national human capabilities for creativity and innovation in scientific research, the development of arbitration systems for the performance of scientific research, and the availability of educational and scientific information (66) . Scientific research in the knowledge society depends on several aspects, including the following (67) : digital university by supporting distance learning programs and providing a virtual environment suitable for students to communicate with faculty members with ease (69) .
Information technologies that support the knowledge society are classified into:  "knowledge storage" techniques, which are used to capture and store knowledge, to improve the organizational memory and to provide extensive access to knowledge resources, such as knowledge repositories and databases.  "access to knowledge" techniques that aim to enhance access to knowledge stored in knowledge storage tools, and support the transfer of knowledge between individuals, such as knowledge maps and web pages.
 "search and knowledge retrieval" techniques that locate knowledge on internal and external networks on the Internet; to enhance access to knowledge by escalating the speed and accuracy of knowledge search, such as: internet search engines.  "Knowledge delivery/sharing" techniques that can be adopted in the process of knowledge transfer and dissemination, such as: e-mail systems, voice mail, instant messaging systems, electronic bulletin board, video conferencing, online forums, social networking sites.  "knowledge discovery" techniques, which can be used in the process of creating knowledge, by examining and analyzing raw data, to discover relationships between different knowledge and extract new knowledge.
For example: data mining tools and statistical tools, presentations tools, and animation tools. From the above-mentioned, it can be concluded that the research dealt with the three axes. First: human resources because they are the holders of knowledge and the ones who generate, disseminate, invest and apply it to take advantage of it. They are also the heart of the university that manages it as a whole. If the provision of knowledge which they need has stopped, the university would be weakened or its work would die. On the contrary, if they acquired new knowledge or created something new, the university would be more active, dynamic and empowered to play its major role in society. Second: scientific research, which is a basic function of the university and one of the resources that help to generate and create new knowledge, as it addresses problems that serve the community and the surrounding environment, with the possibility of easily spreading and sharing it electronically through the third axis, which is information technology. Until recently, there was a famous saying among academia, namely (Publish or Perish). That is, if the university does not seek to carry out scientific research, scientific publishing and marketing its research, it becomes a dilapidated building that needs to be removed or restored. Technology can also be used to develop the electronic portals of universities, in line with international standards.