The Arabian Gulf University  ( AGU) ranked first in the latest classification of world universities in 2021 carried out by Scimago, which is linked to the Scopus search engine. classification based on three main indicators: scientific publication, creativity, and global societal impact. World Universities eligible for the rankings must have published 100 international peer-reviewed papers annually, which are included in the Scopus search engine.

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According to this classification, the Arabian Gulf University came first locally, 12th in the Gulf, and 20th at the level of universities in the Arab world, while it ranked 47th at the level of universities in the Middle East, and 501th at the level of universities in the world.

The President of the Arabian Gulf University, Dr. Khaled bin Abdul Rahman Alohali, said that over the past 40 years, the Arabian Gulf University has gained a distinguished reputation in the GCC at large due to its strategy in education based on high academic standards that adopts an innovative educational approach, which reflected in several international rankings that classify universities around the world according to comprehensive international standards that measure the growth of positive academic reputation, high-quality research citations, and many other academic standards, the most recent of which was the AD Scientific Index Global Ranking, which included the name of 19 researchers from the university's academic body among the active researchers in research At the level of countries in the world, who have obtained a Hirsch coefficient of more than 10, as well as the Times Higher Education 2021 classification of universities, where the Arabian Gulf University ranked 15th as the best university in the Arab world, and first at the level of universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in addition to the university's obtaining many of regional and global awards, which contributed to jumping its global classification to advanced ranks in many international classifications with high credibility.

It is noteworthy that this international classification has high credibility and reliability as it includes research published by the global search engine for scientific research that is mainly published by the global publishing house Elsevier, and depends on classification on precise determinants covering five sectors, namely governance, health, higher education, and private sectors,  and each of them has metrics in specific areas such as research output, international cooperation, natural impact, and publication rate, which allows comparisons to be made between universities and higher education institutions according to accurate, accredited international standards.