HEC clarifies confusion about varsities’ ranking

LAHORE: Dr Sohail Naqvi, the executive director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) told The Express Tribune on Friday that Punjab University was the second best general university in the country while the Government College University (GCU) Lahore was the university with the best research output.

The executive director clarified that the HEC has issued two lists of rankings; the GCU topped the list of university ratings based on only their research output while the PU ranked number second in the country on the list in which the universities were ranked in many areas besides research output – including faculty development, strength of the students and publication of journals. He said that each list had different criteria for marking and that university rankings were accordingly.

The GCU public relation officer who had first announced that the university was at the top of the HEC list ranked on the basis of its research output explained, “GCU published 282 theses and research papers while the PU has published 269 research papers in 2009.”

He added that in the list on which rankings were judged on the basis of research output, numbers of students, their scholarships and faculty numbers; the GCU was ranked sixth. He said that the PU ranked second on the list because it has around 50,000 students and around 1,800 faculty members while the GCU has around 7,000 students and around 450 faculty members.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2010.