Islamabad
Like the previous year, no Pakistani university could make place among top 500 world universities, revealed by the thirteenth edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for the year 2016-17, released on Tuesday.
The ranking sees leading US and UK universities retain their positions at the top – though facing a growing challenge from the world’s higher education institutions of emerging economic powers.
According to the list of university released by the QS World University Rankings 2016, only 6 universities from Pakistan have marked their way amongst the top 800 universities from around the world with no improvement from the previous year.
Securing six spots in the ranking roll are the following Pakistani universities. Five Pakistan universities tied up on the 701th place in the list including Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Lahore, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad, University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore, University of Karachi and University of Lahore while National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Islamabad made halfway through the list at 501-550.
As compared to no Pakistani universities among top 500 universities, 7 are from India, 24 from China, 2 from Iran, 5 from Turkey, 3 from Singapore, 4 from Israel, 3 from Saudi Arabia, 5 from Malaysia, 6 from Lebanon, 3 from Lebanon and 6 from Hong Kong. Thirty-three countries feature in the Top 200. The US dominate, with 48 institutions, ahead of the UK (30), Netherlands (12), Germany (11), Canada, Australia (9), Japan (8), China (7), France, Sweden and Hong Kong (5).
Holding onto the top spot for the fifth consecutive year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is now followed by Stanford University, which has climbed one place this year. Harvard University (which led the ranking from 2004-9) is now third, while the University of Cambridge (another former table-topper) slips to fourth, having shared joint third with Stanford last year. The rest of the top 10 is predominantly stable, though Switzerland’s ETH Zurich continues its upwards trajectory, switching places with the UK’s Imperial College London.
There is a slight pause in momentum for Asia’s frontrunners – the National University of Singapore and country-mate Nanyang Technological University – which hold steady at 12th and 13th respectively. A little further down the list, China’s leading light, Tsinghua University, climbs one place to its highest-ever position, at joint 24th.
The ranking shows progress for some (though not all) of the world’s fast-developing economies, including both China and Russia, and for leading higher education hubs across Asia. China now has three universities in the global top 50. There is also a more general pattern of upwards momentum for institutions across Asia’s leading higher education hubs. All but one of Hong Kong’s seven featured institutions have moved up this year, with three featuring in the top 50. Both South Korea and Malaysia see their leading institutions continue to climb. The majority of Russian universities featured in the ranking have also improved their positions this year – four of them by more than 100 places.
A notable exception to this pattern is the US, whose institutions continue to go from strength to strength in the rankings. Many US institutions have maintained or improved their positions this year, and the country claims almost a quarter (48) of the top-200 entries. This is also the first time since the inaugural 2004/5 edition that US universities have occupied all three top spots.
Published annually since 2013, the QS World University Rankings provides an overview of the world’s leading higher education institutions, based on six performance indicators i.e academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), international students (5%), and international faculty (5%). The ranking has been expanded this year to feature 916 universities (25 more than last year) in 81 countries, following an assessment of more than 3,800 institutions. About 74,651 academics and 37,781 employers’ responses contributed towards the results, making both surveys the largest of their kind in the world. Over 3,800 institutions were considered for inclusion this year and 916 ranked, 25 more than in 2015. 10.3 million papers indexed by the Scopus/Elsevier bibliometric database were analyzed, and 66.3 million citations counted, which amounted to 50.4 million citations once self-citations were excluded.
Earlier, Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016, no Pakistani university could succeed to make place among the world’s top 500 universities even no Pakistani university could make place among top 100 Asian universities, released by Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2016.
According to World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2015-16 , under the heads of Higher Education and Training, Pakistan’s ranking is way down at 124th out of 140 countries as compared to India at 90th, Bangladesh 122nd, Nepal 113rd, China 28th, Iran 69th, Bhutan 103rd, Qatar 27th, UAE 37th and Saudi Arabia 49th.
As per QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings 2016 , Pakistani higher education system has been ranked at bottom with 9.2 score as compared to China 83.5, South Korea 80.1, Singapore 62.3, India 60.9, Chile 46.7, Saudi Arabia 36.7, Turkey 26.1, Kazakhstan 25.1, Lebanon 19.8, Ukraine 16.6, United Arab Emirates 10.9 scores. Surprisingly, Pakistan lags behind from small country of smaller country, Estonia.