The study aimed to build a proposed strategy to develop the performance of Omani universities in the light of the indicators of global university rankings. To achieve this, the study explored the reality of the performance of Omani universities in the application of classification indicators, and identified the degree of difference in application between public and private universities. It also examined the most prominent challenges facing Omani universities in the application of these indicators and proposed developmental solutions in preparation for the building of proposed strategy. The study relied on a descriptive method and a mixed-methods approach was conducted combining quantitative and qualitative tools to achieve the objectives of the study. The study used an explanatory sequential design, where the questionnaire was initially applied to collect data from a sample of 116 individuals representing the targeted Omani public and private universities, then interviews were conducted with 19 individuals representing the same universities to dig deeper into the data and obtain explanations of what the quantitative result showed. The most notable results were that the level of application of the indicators of global university rankings, as shown by the quantitative result, came to a high degree at the general level of the questionnaire domains (administrative, academic, research, and technological). While at the level of the statements of the domains, the result revealed an average level of some phrases such as the transparent disclosure of universities about their administrative, financial and academic performance; commitment of universities to internationally accepted standards of the share of students to academics; attraction of international award holders in their specializations; existence of exchange programs between academics with local and international universities, and provision of research sabbatical leave for academics. The qualitative result agreed with the quantitative result in the existence of the application of the indicators of the global university rankings but differed in the level of this application. The interviews showed a weakness in the level of application and interpreted the rise in the quantitative result as expressing the efforts made as well as the pressure of application on these institutions from the higher administrative levels and not the actual reality of the degree of application. Additionally, the interviews showed many short-comesin the application of indicators, which explained the poor performance of Omani universities in the ranking tables. The most notable problems shown by the interviews in the administrative side were: poor planning, complexities and administrative authoritarianism. As for the academic side, the problems were: high share of students to academics, high number of teaching hours, weakness of academic exchange and high administrative burdens and committees. In the research side, the problems were: insufficient spending on scientific research and that the focus of Omani universities was more on teaching than research. Finally, the technological side showed weakness in the technological infrastructure in some Omani universities. The result of the interviews also showed that the short-comesin the application of the ranking indicators by Omani universities were the result of a number of challenges, most notably: weak qualification of university leaders, lack of clarity of policies in some universities, weak diversification of sources of income, overloading work on academics in administration and teaching, and delay in updating the websites of some universities. The study came out with a proposed strategy to improve the reality and propose ways to overcome the challenges shown by the result of the study to achieve the aspirations of Oman Vision 2040 related to raising the level of Omani universities in the global ranking tables of ratings.