This study applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize factors that influence the zakat eligibility for students in the Higher Education Institution (HEI) while addressing the challenge of fair and transparent fund distribution. Subjectivity in decision-making often leads to inefficiencies in targeting financially vulnerable students. To overcome this, AHP is utilized to rank six key eligibility criteria: living status, occupation, income, number of dependents, number of siblings, and assistance received. Survey questionnaires are distributed among zakat committee members and the assessments were used for AHP method. Findings indicate that living status (0.386) is the most influential factor, followed by occupation (0.156) and income (0.127), while assistance received (0.085) is the least significant. Future research should explore integrating additional socioeconomic indicators and machine learning techniques to enhance decision-making accuracy in the zakat management.