As former chairman of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission and former coordinator-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's science and technology body COMSTECH, I suggest that some universities in the Muslim world are not in such dire need of revitalization as Nidhal Guessoum and Athar Osama imply (Nature 526, 634–636; 2015).

At least 3 such institutions are ranked in the world's top 250 — the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, and King Fahd University and King Saud University, both in Saudi Arabia (see go.nature.com/4gfu2u). In 2013 and 2014, the Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University and Bilkent University in Turkey were ranked in the top 400 globally (see go.nature.com/m6195d). Pakistan's National University of Sciences and Technology and the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences were ranked in the top 200 Asian universities in 2014 (see go.nature.com/kdwt8w). The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi are rising stars.

According to 2014 data on scientific publications, Iran ranks 16th in the world, Turkey is 19th and Malaysia is 23rd — on a par with Switzerland, Taiwan and some Scandinavian countries, and ahead of South Africa (see go.nature.com/ms6fct).

Furthermore, the requirements of the United Arab Emirates' Commission of Academic Accreditation (CAA) are more stringent than those of the US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), for instance. Whereas the CAA requires faculty members to have the highest degree in their field (such as a PhD), ABET requires only appropriate qualifications. The CAA also requires universities to have accredited PhD programmes in addition to accredited bachelor's and master's degrees.