NED ranked among the world’s top 200 universities

The NED University of Engineering and Technology has been ranked among the world's top 200 universities by the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings.

It was stated by the NED University in an official statement issued on Wednesday.

Among other institutions of higher education, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology and the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences were ranked among 200-300 while COMSATS and Government College University Lahore were among the United Nation’s (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The rankings were made by assessing universities against the UN’S SDGs to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three broad areas of research, outreach, and stewardship.

The university’s performance was evaluated on 11 of them in its first edition of the ranking; SDG 3 for good health and well-being, SDG 4 for quality education, SDG 5 for gender equality, SDG 8 for decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 for industry, innovation, and infrastructure, SDG 10 for reduced inequalities, SDG 11 for sustainable cities and communities, SDG 12 for responsible consumption and production, SDG 13 for climate action, SDG 16 for peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG 17 for partnerships for the goals.

The university’s final score in the overall table was calculated by combining its score in SDG 17 with its top three scores out of the remaining 10 SDGs. SDG 17 accounts for 22 per cent of the overall score, while the other SDGs each carry a weighting of 26 per cent. This means that different universities were scored based on a different set of SDGs, depending on their focus, the statement added.

There were three categories of metrics within each SDG. The research metrics were derived from data supplied by Elsevier. For each SDG, a specific query had been created that narrows the scope of the metric to papers relevant to that SDG. As with the World University Rankings, they were using a five-year window between 2013 and 2017.

The only exception was the metric on patents that cite research under SDG 9, which relates to the timeframe in which the patents were published rather than the timeframe of the research itself. The metrics chosen for the bibliometrics differ by SDG and there were always at least two bibliometric measures used.

These metrics were not usually size normalised. The evidence was evaluated against a set of criteria and decisions were cross-validated where there was uncertainty. The evidence was not required to be exhaustive; they were looking for examples that demonstrate best practice at the institutions concerned.