Seven Pakistani universities in Asia's top 300

Seven universities from Pakistan have made it to the top 300 universities in the Times Higher Education’s list of Asia’ University Rankings for the year 2017.

Since its inception in 2004, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings use information provided by the government to issue a list of the world’s best universities based on teaching, research, international outlook and reputation.



Last year, only two Pakistani universities – Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) and National University of Science and Technology (Nust) –  broke the top 300. This year, however, the number has tripled, with  COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, University of Lahore, Bahauddin Zakariya University and University of Karachi ranked between 121 and 250, joining QAU and Nust.

“It is fantastic news that Pakistan has more than tripled its representation in this year’s list of Asia’s best universities, taking seven places, up from two last year. COMSATS Institute of Information Technology is the only new entry to make the top 200 (in the 141-150 band),” said Times Higher Education Rankings Editor Phil Baty.



“Higher education enrolment in Pakistan has increased significantly (from 280,000 students in 2002 to 1.3 million today), and 47 per cent of these are women (compared to 36 percent 10 years ago), according to data from the World Bank. But, only around 10 per cent of the country’s university-age population go to university, which is much lower than the equivalent figures in India and Sri Lanka. Despite this, reforms have made the establishment of universities much easier, resulting in a trebling in the number of higher education institutions since 2000. And the country’s Vision 2025 commits to increasing the proportion of its young people enrolled in higher education in the next decade and doubling the number of doctoral students to 15,000,” he added.