The Times Higher Education World University ranking is out and Pakistan is not holding up very well. The last ranking placed 7 Pakistani Universities in the later ranking but this year that number had dropped to 4.
While this ranking is not one of its kind—there are as many as 20 rankings that claim to be international—THE World Universities Ranking is considered one of the big three. It is difficult to judge if this ranking scheme is justified as it takes Universities from 150 countries into account.
Out of the four Quaid-i-Azam University is the only one to cross into the top 500s which were previously placed 281 ranks down. NUST and LUMS both have slipped from their previous ranks but the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad has maintained the same position as last year.
THE World University Ranking claims that it considers as many as 13 important pointers while grading the university. On the larger scale, it considers 5 major indicators which are grouped into five areas
Pakistan falls the shortest as compared to its neighbors. China took the lead in the region and got 60 universities in the ranking, with 30 in the top 300 and 2 in the top 100. 30 Indian and 11 Iranian also secured places in the list.
Bahauddin Zakariya University, University of Karachi and University of Lahore were dropped from the list. Evaluation and assessment expert Shagufta Shahzadi questioned why Pakistan’s premier institutes like Aga Khan University, the Lahore University of Management Sciences, National University of Modern Languages, Beaconhouse National University, FAST, Lahore School of Economics, the Institute of Business Administration and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology never appeared in the world ranking despite having an excellent job market.
The director of THE World University Rankings Phill Baty says that lack appropriate funding is holding back Pakistan in the list. He hopes that with the CPEC arriving in the full course the situation is bound to improve from Pakistani Universities.
“The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor unveiled by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013 and now in its first phase of implementation has been touted as a potential way for Pakistan to build the technological capacity of its universities,” he said.
Overall Oxford University took the top spot and dispelled the 5-year rule of Caltech USA from the top spot. California Institute of Technology United States and Stanford secured second and third places respectively. Oxford is also the first English University to be placed at the top in the 12-years of Times Higher Education World University Ranking. However, the North American powerhouse still dominates the list with 148 universities in the top 980 and 63 in the top 200.
