ABHA: Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid University has improved 300 places to rank among the top 600 seats of higher learning around the world, according to the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In the International Dimension Rankings, it ranked 117th globally and sixth locally among the top 200 international universities. According to Hamid Al-Qarni, vice president of postgraduate studies and scientific research, the university has achieved a significant milestone and the progress is in line with the Kingdom’s plan to achieve global recognition of its universities. Sami Al-Shehri, director of the international classification unit, said the magazine’s rankings were based on five areas: education, research environment, quality of research, international dimension and industry. The classification also includes 18 performance indicators that are professionally evaluated to ensure a balanced ratio for all academic and research aspects of universities. This year’s rankings covered more than 1,900 universities in 120 countries.