I had said that NED university has been left behind by some other engineering universities in Pakistan in research.
KARACHI: I refer to a letter to the editor (May 28) by Engineer Javed Aziz Khan, Registrar NED University, in which he has responded to my articles of May 18 and 19. I had said that NED university has been left behind by some other engineering universities in Pakistan in research, as reflected by rankings.
I am grateful that he has acknowledged that the dramatic progress made in engineering education was due to my efforts and that NED, too, benefited from these. However, he has made two statements in defence of the university, both of, which are wrong.
Firstly he has attributed my conclusion to the ranking of universities by the HEC. This is incorrect. My conclusion is based on international rankings of universities published by the Higher Education Times (UK) ranking in successive years and QS international rankings for the past two years. This year, NUST is ranked at 274 in the world, UET Lahore is 281 in the world, while NED has never been ranked even among the top 500.
Secondly, he wrongly states that the Pakistan Marine Academy campus for the French engineering university was abandoned because of poor management by the HEC. This too is incorrect. The project of establishing foreign engineering universities was frozen by the Cabinet in May 2008, as will be clarified in part three of my article which will appear shortly.
Professor Attaur Rahman
Fellow, Royal Society
Former chairman HEC
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2011.
