KARACHI: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) rejected the ranking of Pakistan’s business schools, released by Higher Education Commission (HEC) last week. The reason they gave was that it was based on misguided parameters.
“We believe that the ranking is incorrect and based on a flawed process,” said a statement emailed to The Express Tribune. “It’s based on numbers, not quality.”
The HEC ranked Szabist at number 11 in the category of general universities of medium size and did not include it in the list of top 12 business schools of the country. This is in contrast to the information given on the institute’s website, according to which Szabist is one of the top 20 business schools of Asia, as per the ranking of Business Week, an international magazine that reports on the state of business education in different parts of the world.
According to the commission, the ranking is based on quality assurance and its enhancement, quality of teaching and research. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Iqra University were ranked as the top three business schools of Pakistan.
“Szabist, by far, is one of the top business and IT schools [of the country]. We have a track record and market acceptance to prove this. Our credits are internationally accepted. We have exchange programmes with highly reputed universities of the world,” read the statement.
The university spokesperson also criticised the commission’s decision to put the institute in the category of general universities instead of comparing it to educational institutions which focus exclusively on either business or IT. “The performer [HEC] never identified Szabist as a business or IT institute, but considered it as a general university.”
Responding to the outburst HEC Statistical Information Unit Assistant Director Aziz Ullah said that Szabist had agreed to the classification before the commission issued the final ranking.
“We sent them the relevant documents beforehand, which clearly stated its classification as a general university,” he said. “We had the data verified by the institute before developing the ranking.The objection of the institute is baseless.”
However, the spokesperson insisted that the management of the institute were not fully aware of assessment criteria. “We did receive forms to fill, but no official from the HEC informed us about the mechanism of the exercise or shared any specific details about it.”
However, he did not expect a drop in the student enrolment rate. “Our market credibility is such that we don’t expect any adverse effect of this rating, which is clearly based on a flawed process.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2012.
COMMENTS (68)
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@Sara: szabist is going down bad news but not hurt
@Wazeer: wow. So with the kind of language you use, I suppose you graduated from Havard. :)
OMG we can't compare our SZABIST with IQRA atleast, not fair because our comparison is Off-course with LUMS, IBA and CBM not IQRA at all....
Dear all, SZABIST is more and institution its more of a musical, theatrical and arts school now. I don't remember the last SZABIST paper published in IEEE since last three years. They have quality entertainment at SZBIST now instead quality education. Sorry folks but a bitter truth for old SZABIST graduates like me :)
Guys let's stop fighting and put our efforts and energies to enhance education quality of our institutions, whether it is SZABIST or anybody else. We needn't despise each other for being a student of a university/institution other than our own. These rows between us based on race, provinces, cultures and now universities have undermined our real purpose of life. Let's work together for the future of this nation by joining hands and capitalizing on each others strengths.
Kindly join me by double-clicking my name and share my cause :))
SZABISTian here, I find my universities faculty and infrastructure is better than most ranked universities in hec ranking. Although we lack resources such as pools, gym or good cafetiere unlike other universities(resort), we have something that matters our faculty is too supportive they really want us to learn not just pass papers and I am Bs-computing student, so for me computer and internet is a must Szabist provides me with latest computer's with fast internet. And teacher's are 99% available to answer my queries, guide me through each and every turn. And if u want to learn something i mean really learn, you cant find a better university than this..
p.s everyone has a right to have his opinion and I have mine, which is; I feel hec has not ranked Szabist as it deserves..
we proud to be a in international ranking, local rankings have no impact on us. we are international.
I have worked in several giant banks of Pakistan and i have interacted with so many SZABIST graduates during that period but never ever faced any Iqra graduate. by the way we always use to compare Iqra with Maju, Szabist with CBM, IBA with LUMS. From: A neutral guy :)
Hello... Please do not get hostile and lets act like an educated sect of the society as it is already tiny. this ranking is not affecting any one student over here but all others as well. As those doing well deserve to be appreciated. But yes i totally agree with those supporting the idea that this HEC ranking is flawed.
This institutional fight seems more like a tug-of-war between two Lollywood actresses, fighting for 'who is no.1'.
Comparing zabist with iqra???
Seems like you are class one and two students fighting…
Maera school acha hai nahe nahee maera school acha hai. Maeray school mae yeah hota hai, hamaray school mae pt bhi hoti ha pata hai etc etc…
Be mature!
Come to the main topic. Why did this happen and how?
Instead of pin pointing each other universities we should compare and make our universities better in standards and quality of education with the international universities.
I am a Iqra Student cleared the admission test of cbm and zabist. As i belong to middle class family couldn't afford zabist.
grow up guys.... well done is better than well said..
Under the revised ranking, on request of SZABIST to consider it as Business School rather than General University, SZABIST is at the 6th position of HEC ranking.
@SZABIST Alumni: Cham, its not like that. I know graduates of IBA, SZABIST, and CBM searching the job. The market is saturated. Understand it!
u people keep fighting with each other but don't blame HEC ranking system. Sukkur IBA is emerging on the glob of world slow and gradually. INSHALLAH one day it will be on top of the list. it is really very amazing that Sukkur IBA has got 4th position in short span of time and i'm proude to be Sukkur IBAian.
SZABIST has made a good call... HEC should be changing it's criteria.
i dont remeber the name , but the first person of pakistan who got oscar is a teacher at SZABIST Karachi.......
Dear all,
Kindly don't divert this discussion to SZABIST vs IQRA. This issue is very serious and has grave consequences in long run. Because this ranking is on premise "ranking is a quality indicator and this information will help shed light on key indicators of higher education institutions in Pakistan to allow students, parents, potential employers and all other stakeholders to make informed decisions regarding higher education institutions"
Now imagine what consequences could be, if results are not representative of the population.
SZABISTIANS: Stop crying, Improve your education , Quality, and fulfill the Criteria required by HEC, if you cannot do this then Start Crying. Kuch bhi ho Iqra is the best
Have you say on HEC Ranking: http://thinkingsociety.blogspot.com/
SZABIST should have been in top 5. There are reasons we can't go down.
There is no sniff of wisdom in the ranking. I challenge Mr. Javaid Laghari on validity of results and so called adaptation of global criteria, viewing our ground realities. I challenge him to write five pages on "how results are valid" and in response I will write five pages on "why results are invalid" and then let people decide. Only I need is to have access on data.
Mr. Lala, Professionals dun cry...v discuss the matter...thats the difference..!! :)
IQRA is the best !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is worth noting that just an year ago, SZABIST was ranked third by the HEC and exactly after an year, it vanishes the name from the list. One wonders what happens in just one year which resulted in this situation. Standards don't fall this easily. Thus, the fact that HEC has disappeared SZABIST's name seems completely ironic.
if you believe that your university is good enough and helping you develop your personality, then why would you care about any rankings. At the end of the day you, as graduates, represent your university, not the infrastructure nor these HEC rankings.
Iqra might be higher than SZABIST in the HEC rankings but seriously ? All your students are the ones who didn't make it to SZABIST and are known for being unemployed after graduation.
SZABIST's students have also published their research papers in ICME 2012, and that was by BBA program, instead of MS or PHD level.
A very big lol at SZABIST and Iqra Students. Cham, why you people always fight for ranking? Mr. Wazeer and Ms Sara, your comments were interesting and thought provoking indeed. I'm one of you; I had affiliation with both institute.; both institute has produced brilliant talent. Put rating aside, SZABIST has proved to be the choice of employers. Iqra is improving, still it has to achieve much.
I study in the 12th best University of the WORLD.. Boo-yah!
we not consider her ranking
Cry like babies or die like babies - We are among the top Universities - Proud be a student of Iqra University - kyun k dost Iqra ka scene on hai !!!
HEC is for LOCAL Universities, We are OSCAR type people. Proud to be a SZABISTian!
All are known that szabist is being prefered at corporate level Due to its quality nd standards. So we can't measure performance of any institution on the basis of laboratories.. Scope in Market decides the standard of institution. HEC is not sole authority to decide quality of Szabist.. There will be no impact on standard of Szabist by Ranking of HEC.. SZABIST will sustain more... Proud to be szabistian
HEC criteria for university ranking is highly debatable.
http://pakistani-edu.blogspot.com/2012/02/hec-university-ranking-criteria-is-that.html
What kind of University is this? You filled up the forms sent to you by HEC without bothering to know what it is about?? This by itself is evidence enough of your ranking!! You deserve it!
SZABIST was ranked 1st in Asia when Dr Laghari (Chairman HEC) was the Project Director there at SZABIST. It surprises me that now that he has gone the ranking has fallen so badly. Something is surely fishy since Iqra University has topped SZABIST.
First of all EVERY business university teaches the same book. Meigs and Meigs for accounting, Kotler for marketing, budnick for maths etc hence not much difference. There are brilliant individual students in ALL universities. However IBA & LUMS have that special thing that others lack. They have finesse and alot of analytic ability. The only business university who can come up to their level is CBM and maybe to some extent Szabist. Iqra is doing very good but still has a long way to go. Source: 4 years experience in working in multinationals and fertilizer companies.
Divide & rule:after all sorts of divisions is it turn of educated class to get itself divided?We should be proud of achievements of students/alumni of any university.Who's not proud of alumni of SZABIST contributing us in OSCAR win?If you put LUMS,NUST,GIKI or IBA out of these ranking I won't see them responding in such a rash way, of-course they all must be having roam for improvement but they have proved themselves over the years.UET Lahore isn't in the list either but even they haven't responded like this. If SZABIST doesn't trust HEC they should try to get into credible international rankings like QS but please stop defaming an institute like HEC & stop this fuss.It won't do any good to Pakistan or SZABIST. 1st understand HEC's criteria & then respond. @Sara:Though most of our universities have English as medium of instruction but that shouldn't make us comment on anyone's English.Not many in Pakistan are privileged enough to get their English basic right.Your problem is SZABIST exclusion from rankings,stick to this point & don't degrade urself by lashing out other universities.All universities including SZABIST & IQRA are our pride.Make sense & feel pride in being urself.
We at SZABIST are far ahead than any rankings.. We have been proving our worth in the market since 17 years... and we have our grads now in almost all leading organisations.. and as far as campus and infrastructure is concerned.. Same goes for Iqra.. the place seems like some sort of Fortress from outside.. not a top 3 business institute.. And lastly lets not forget.. HEC is also a GOVERNMENT body!!
Thank you
The standard should be research publications in international journals, like it is for Harvard, Yale, Stanford and all prestigious universities. no zabFM, festivals, and other stuff.
for your info: AMI is now known as IQRA UNIVERSITY :)
It's not just SZABIST, I feel HEC needs to be more clear in terms of their grading policy because some of their decisions are astonishing. I also spoke to number of employers, and they suggested that they do not use HEC rankings as a bench mark to prefer one candidate over another nor do I see candidates applying to IBA sukkar because it ranks better than SZABIST or CBM. Having said that, I am still confident that with more focus on post graduate programs and campus infrastructure, SZABIST too can make it to top.
The rankings are based on research papers published and the number of PhDs an institute has as well as the campus, due to which SZABIST isnt that high up however, having said that the students of SZABIST are higher up than students of many universities the proof to which is that employers prefer hiring SZABIST graduates over the graduates of other universities.
In 2009, when i was looking for admission, i had iba as my first option for business school...When i didnt make it to IBA, i made it to SZABIST and CBM.....i chose Szabist and many of my friends also prefered SZABIST over CBM....those who couldnt make it to SZABIST, prefered to do ACCA rather than going for CBM...still some went to CBM....Those who couldnt even make it to CBM, went to IQRA....Quality of students make the University !!!
Not within only Business but in Medical Category too, There is simply no comparison of LUMHS and ISRA University, they ranked ISRA as 4th and LUMHS first at 9th position, then at 8th Position, they deleted Khyber Medical from 5th position also. This is the funniest situation so far.
Is english language and useless ZAB festival and everything are the only factors to consider in ranking university.SZABIST should show the number of graduates per year and their success rate in getting jobs and how higher positions do they get in an organisation.This will decide the ranking of a university
What we have to understand here is that its not about just Szabist. We have seen that other universities who are much better have been placed pretty low on the ranking. I personally think that this year's ranking is not right. I think they should review their decision.
SZABIST has achieved so many awards and value. From ZABFM to ZAB MEDIA FESTIVAL, ZABMUN to AISEC in KARACHI, Szabist lead it all. and right away we had again done a bang by getting OSCAR AWARD for a film made by our faculty member and SZABIST alumni...
FAST is the top university in computer science field, and yet it comes after COMSATS, HEC r u kidding?
@Sara: Please try to understand that rating is based on research, faculty and infrastructure which are crucial for any uni in the world to perform better, szabist has good repute in industry but lacks many things, your uni must take a breath and try to fill the gap rather than lashing out at HEC & especially AMI. AMI have achieved this status in short span of time and that must be encoureged.
Instead of emotional comments from Szabists alumni and students, its better if they can counter HEC rankings with proof. By the way, standard of English isn't the criteria of ranking a business school.
What actually happened: The teachers and profs at Szabist took the HEC forms as normal routine thing and did not bother fill them properly and now whining about it.
@Sara...ur reaction is not helping if you are trying to promote your University.
i am neither from SZABIST nor IQRA but have seen graduates of both and found them pretty good. HEC's ranking system is still in its development stage and if i remeber correctly last time NED was way doen the order as compared to other engineering universities. hopefully with time the ranking system would develop properly and work as a useful tool for gauging universities (as it is intended to be).
@wazeer,
Achievements?
Well, SZABIST Faculty and Alumni have bagged Pakistan's first Oscar award (yes we've made history)
SZABIST Students introduced the flood march last year and generated millions for the flood victims.
SZABIST was the first to launch the educational radio service ZABFM.
I can go on but I'm afraid I will surpass the comment box character limit. :).
@sara If english is the standard of education for SZABISTIAN's ...then I got a bad news for you... A sewage worker can speak better english than you guys in USA :)
@wazeer This list has some serious flaws...for instance Putting NED on number 9 for Engineering & Technology Universities is simply BS...
In the previous version of the HEC Rankings, it was among the top three universities for Business/ I.T.
Please try to understand that rating is based on research, faculty and infrastructure which are crucial for any uni in the world to perform better, szabist has good repute in industry but lacks many things, your uni must take a breath and try to fill the gap rather than lashing out at HEC & especially AMI. AMI have achieved this status in short span of time and that must be encoureged.
@wazeer: if you belive your university and your university student are good enough then why we havnt hrd any achivement of yours yet!?
I guess if you haven't herd of any achievements you do not read newspapers and are obviously living in your own sweet bubble!!! OSCAR award was awarded to a student and teacher from SZABIST!!!
Yes Szabistian never speak such type of language
this is injustice of HEC with szabist that HEC ranked szabist as a general university although its major focus is on Business and IT.. SZABIST have international standards, IQRA,IBA sukkur and other business schools have still not met with requirement of international standards.. it will take much time to reach at SZABIST ranking.. all should keep in mind.. im proud to be SZABISTIAN
@Wazeer: Dear Mr. Wazeer,
Your English shows that you either from IQRA, but at least not from SZABIST, Because we have standards which people like you will never understand,
Hats off to kazim Alam , proud to be SZABISTIAN!!
Dear Mr. Wazeer,
Your English shows that you either from IQRA, but at least not from SZABIST, Because we have standards which people like you will never understand,
Hats off to kazim Alam, proud to be SZABISTIAN!!
Dear
This is not the way you cal HEC is doing some thing wrong if u have some evidance, prove i mean number of PHD doctors number of Research publications Number of Labs equipments Infrastucture wtc u can show that...
i my self have watched Szabist labs and other infrastructure it sucks! trsut me
and the student of your university are dull they dont talk sensss so you have presented a volatile statment...
if you belive your university and your university student are good enough then why we havnt hrd any achivement of yours yet!?
Air university of 10 times better then you and students are also good and it is not listed in any rank... so think abou it