Pakistan’s research goes up by 300% in the last five years. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: As many as seven universities of Pakistan have made it to the list of top 250 Asian universities while three other universities among the top 200 world universities in agriculture and forestry.
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), United Kingdom-based universities ranking agency issued the ranking for the year 2013.
According to QS, Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad (QAU) has secured 119 position among top 250 Asian varsities while National University of Science and Technology Islamabad (NUST) was declared 120, Agha Khan University Karachi (AKU) between 151-160, Lahore University of Management Sciences Lahore (LUMS) between 191-200, University of Engineering & Technology Lahore (UET), University of Karachi and University of the Punjab Lahore between 201-250 are now in top 250.
“This is the result of hard work and the passion we poured into the university in order to deliver world class education in developing country,” Quaid-e-Azam Universities Vice Chancellor Masoom Yasinzai said.
In addition, three Pakistani universities: University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) 142, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi 152 and QAU 172, are now in the Top 200 World Universities categories in the disciplines of agriculture and forestry.
“We are in the subject ranking list, which carries over 3,000 varsities,” Vice Chancellor University of Agriculture Faisalabad Iqrar Khan said. “It is important, however, that we sustain the ranking we attained.”
Commenting on the universities’ international recognition, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Javed Laghari said during the last year six Pakistani universities were among top 300 Asian universities. “This year seven varsities are in the list of top 250,” he said.
According to HEC sources, since the establishment of education body in 2002, research output has grown eight-folds (from 815 research papers in 2002 to more than 6,300 in 2012) with the largest number of publications in areas of economic development.
As a result, the world share of Pakistan’s research has gone up by 300 per cent in the last five years.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2013.
COMMENTS (63)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Yes we need to improve further but we should not make such acerbic comments. After all this is an achievement to be at least on a ranking list. We should be thankful to Almighty ALLAH for this. You should also consider that we have made this accomplishment with very scarce resources.Though some of your points are valid but we should never jeer on ourselves and let others to jeer upon us or our country or our education system. Yes we need to ameliorate and we will INSHALLAH by our diligence and hard work. We will work as a nation and will raise our education standard at par with any developed country of the world. thanks alot
Feeling proud to hear about such an amazing achievement of Pakistan.
@Mj: uni of agriculture my university,,,proudly saying i m agrarian
Last 5 years? Now was not the PPP in office during this time? And the media was bashing them all the time. Shame on the media - SHAME!
Wow, isn't it the change?
This is amazing yaar. Great simply nothing more than that.
Well done Pakistan hope you reach next time to top 100.
And the biggest one is missing ... NED UET ... the best one in PK that do not requires any ranking at all ;-)
@Sarfaraz: Your lol describes yours......... english is not the yardstick of being eduacted. am Pakistan born.................. not American dear.
Exact reflection of the poor state of eduction in Pakistan!
No university in the top 20 in Asia, given the size of the country and its population, shows the pathetic state of education along with poor commitment by not only the law makers but also the academia in general.
I suggest that each VC should sit down with the professors/admin in their respective universities and come up with a vision to be among the top 10 in their respective fields in the next 10 years. Only by following this vision will they be able to achieve excellence in their respective fields in the next 10 years. Afterall individuals have achieved excellence by focuing on a personal vision and remaining committed to it such as SIUT, Shaukat Khanum, LUMS, AKUH, etc why not do it for a whole university?
A personal request to the decision makers - " Please do not focus on securing the next promotion but focus on creating the next Abdul Salam or Bill Gates"
By the way, a ranking in the 100s shows mediocrity not excellence!
Guys - I just checked the list of the Worlds Top Universities on the site mentioned above in the article - Sorry to say Pakistan's best University is LUMS @rank-601. There are NO pakistani universities in the top 500. If educated people like a Vice Chancellor doesn't know - or should I say is deliberately misleading the people - he should be ashamed and resign - how can a person holding such an esteemed position be so clueless.
QAU has a forestry and agriculture department. Since when ? And they made it to top 200 in the world ahead of Faisalabad University of Agriculture.
I just don't agree with this ranking system. And who exactly is QS anyway ? Never heard of them in terms of university rankings.
Another bogus ranking system like the great but unknown International Quality Award most Pakistani companies publicize in their ads.
The headline is MISLEADING. These universities do not rank in the WORLD'S top universities but in Top ASIAN Universities.
Title is misleading. These are not world,s top. These are classified under Top Asian Universities.
Top World
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2012
Top Asian
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2013
@Rashid Thanks for your comments and I am 100% agree with you but your comments are irrelevant with this topic. In the current political circumstances, we have to compete in education, science and technology, industrial developments, business and economy with our neighbor countries to maintain the balance of power in the region. When u didn't compare your self then how would u know u r heading towards the right direction. Personally, I think I am the most racist person and very strict anti indian. I have a feeling that if I got the power to lead our country, first step I will take to ban all Indian channels, movies and sensor every single clip being telecast by our news channels on the name of entertainment.
In relation to this topic, please also check " GLOBAL MBA RANKING 2013 BY FINANCIAL TIMES"
@ArxhaD yes it is sad and ridiculous about 3 only universities in Top 200 and based on your English writing I suppose that's the reason why we have this much number lol come on do you actually realize the criteria for selectio- your government allocates more budget for defense (and yet we can't trace drones or seals) than for education and health!
Sarfaraz Abbasi Larkano Sindh Pakistan
Wow! The Laptop scheme is delivering results sooner than expected. Lol.
Where are Indian Universities in the ranking?
Three colleges from India make it to TOP 50 in the rankings. Why there is no comparison with India this time which is the usual custom.
i cant find a single Indian university in the world 200 or 300 rankings as commented by the above posters so, stop spreading lies..
what, no jamia hafsa?
the standar of education universities of pakistan is deacreasing day by day and we r infact the sole reason 4 this after all ur poor education and examinaton system is too poor to comment on i think it should be improve first
after reading the above comments.it is plenty clear that no one has a clue about higher education institutions.The list of QS 2013 was published long back, but ET found it just now.And the list is of "ASIA" not "WORLD". In the world,not even a single university from Pakistan makes it through top 300,let alone 200.
The list is dominated by Chinese,Japanese,south Korean, Taiwanese,Singaporean universities.followed by India.
QS University Rankings: Asia 2013
and the ranking of Asian universities is a joke compared to European,north American,south American and Australian universities. the only Asian universities that figure among the top in the world are Chinese,Japanese,south Korean and Singaporean.rest are big joke.
Proud to be a quaidian.....:)
Where are Szabist, Iqra and CBM ??
The title is not misleading, instead the information is hidden..Great to see Pakistani Universities to rank among the top 200 world universities in agriculture and forestry. Its definitely a motivating fact.. For more info, please visit www.uniguru.co.in
Awesome..
It is great to know that students don’t have to look outside for world class education. Pakistan continues to produce great talent, and now that talent can stay inside the country and contribute to its success.
Ali Khan
ohh plz....a country which isnt sure about its population shouldnt publish random stats....give a link plz..... and look at the name of the guy who published this.....isnt he the same blogger that has a habit of making pak look posh posh and despises its eastern neighbour tooo much? getting happy for no reason.....national pride??
@Irfan Sahotra: who care abt uet when u have QAU :P
study study study and the result comes no jobs ??? govt must think on 60 % of youth now
i am even more proud to be a "Quaidian" now, and people who are comparing the rankings with other neighboring countries, please cut with the pessimistic talk, it is a progress, slow and steady but at least we are progressing in higher education sector..please start to learn how to appreciate and commend...
@imi87: FYI, no Indian university is in top 200 world ranking. Some depts (like English dept of Delhi University) are top ranked but no university.
It is funny to see the quality of the ranking. According the QS ranking 2013 Quaid-I-Azam University has been ranked 51-200 based on the Agriculture & Forestry subject [http://www.topuniversities.com/node/5051/ranking-details/university-subject-rankings/2013], and QAU do not have any Agriculture & Forestry related department.
What do you think?
@Tommy: I hear you.
UET Lahore rocks!
For those who might be wondering about the exclusion, yes IBA is not a university.
@imi87: pl provide a list of thosr MANY universities....just to enlighten me.further why you people always look at the things through indian glasses?
UET Lahore deserves its place in Top World Univerisities.
Dr. Javed Leghari has actually mislead the Pakistani Nation quoting the statements without verifying Factual figures mentioned on QS web.
[http://www.topuniversities.com/node/4969/ranking-details/asian-university-rankings/2013]
Our Universities Ranks are getting decline rather than improving in last five years. Pls check the Fact Statistics with Historical Data on given link.
News Reporter has also misleaded and plagiarised the News from media.
Prof. Dr. Hussain (University of Karachi)
Thums up! Good news
How is this encouraging? This is Asian ranking only. Break it down per country and we can see how we compare to other countries with similar conditions. Specially I would be interested to know if some of the countries were worst than us and now are doing better.
We are ok with our education system. Just keep going.
No Pakistani university even in the top 400 of "World University Rankings" by QS. 401-450 is NUST, Islamabad.
Where is my beloved NUST EME on the list
@Mj: Read again below In addition, three Pakistani universities: University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) 142, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi 152 and QAU 172, are now in the Top 200 World Universities categories in the disciplines of agriculture and forestry.
We should be ashamed from these stats. Couple of Indian universities are in top 10 and many of Indian universities in top 50 as well, while Pakistani top class universities are not in the top 100. We need to improve massively in the education sector specially from the primary schools to top class business / medical and engineering universities.
The numbers and ranks are nothing to be proud of ... and now that we have less budget dedicated for eductaion , things are not going to get better.
Misleading title. They are among Asia's top 250 not world top 200
Quaidian once Quaidian forever... :)
" As many as seven universities of Pakistan have made it to the list of top 250 Asian universities while three other universities among the top 200 world universities in agriculture and forestry."
The headline is misleading.
HEC Congrats and keep it up.
We have the potential, as every nation does, so just try and keep the standards up. Commendable, considering the socio-economic conditions, security, and many many other issues that are we are passing thru. All the more commendable and appropriate, as Pakistan has a very high youth population, the nation should know that there is a silver linning, and the nations future may be brighter, better informed, better equiped to face the challenges of the future. Keep trying harder Pakistan.
Isn't it POOR to have only 7 varsities in TOP 200.....that too starts with the position on 119th...... isn’t it sound hilarious. Is this out EDUCATION LEVEL in the world…………. What about out our called TOP universities, none of which has made to top 50 at least. NEED to work out our education system on WAR footings…………. Else our Generations will never forgive us what we are leaving for them. This is because we have made Education as Business in the private sector and the quality is being compromised for self interest.
Awesome!!
Good news for a change.