The recent edition of the rankings was released on Wednesday and includes around 1400 universities from 92 countries. Among these universities, there are 14 Pakistani universities.
QAU leads these 14 universities with a rank between 401-500. It is followed by COMSATS University Islamabad (601-800), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (801-1000), International Islamic University, Islamabad (801-1000), Lahore University of Management Sciences (801–1000), National University of Sciences and Technology (801–1000), University of the Punjab (801–1000), Bahauddin Zakariya University (1001+), University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore (1001+), Government College University, Lahore (1001+), University of Peshawar (1001+), PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (1001+), University of Sargodha (1001+), University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore (1001+).
A report in Dawn cited a communication teacher, Hassan Shahzad, at the Islamic International University as saying that Pakistani universities needed to take international rankings seriously as rankings matter a lot.
Shahzad said, “The participation in rankings brings a positive competition; it raises participants’ international standing and improves job market for graduates of those universities. And the main contending points in the ranking race are research, teaching, international outlook, industry income and recognition through citations in recognised journals. Unfortunately, these important areas are not our mind, hence there are no world-class elite institutions in Pakistan.”
He added that the ranking should be a lesson for our education policymakers.
At the helm of the rankings is United Kingdom’s University of Oxford, followed by California Institute of Technology. On third place, is the University of Cambridge followed by the University of Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The United States and United Kingdom dominate the academic ranking, with at least 30 of the top 50 universities from the two countries. The rest among the top 50 are universities from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Asian countries China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Moreover, neighbouring India has 56 universities in the top 1400 universities of the world, speaking volumes of the divide in academic standing between Pakistan and India.