Inside Al-Azhar University's largest research partnership: Cairo University

Behind Al-Azhar University's research output sits a defining relationship: 1,939 co-authored works with Cairo University (Egypt) in the five years to 2025, the university's single largest collaboration.

It anchors an unusually connected research base: 938 collaborating institutions across 72 countries, producing 23,916 joint works over the window, with international co-authors on 34% of output.

The collaborative work travels: its field-weighted citation impact stands at 1.87, where the world average is 1.0.

The Research Collaboration Index, the first global account of how universities actually collaborate, publishes its first full edition on Tuesday 15 September at 09:00 UK.

Every figure derives from the open global research record and is checkable at source.