COMSATS gets good spot in int’l rankings

Islamabad : Times Higher Education (THE), UK, announced the 2021 Asian University Rankings placing COMSATS University Islamabad at 171 among 551 institutions across 30 territories.

THE ranked 16 universities of Pakistan this year, with CUI being the largest in terms of enrolled students. Asia University Rankings 2021 use the same 13 performance indicators as THE World University Rankings, but they are recalibrated to reflect the attributes of Asia’s institutions.

This year’s rankings are led by two Chinese institutions for the second year in a row – Tsinghua University in first place and Peking University in second, while Japan has the largest number of ranked universities in Asia.

Universities are judged across all their core missions, teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tabassum Afzal, Rector COMSATS University Islamabad said that CUI had faced tremendous challenges in the past year due to frequent closures resulting from COVID-19.

He paid tribute to the Researchers, Staff, and faculty members, who undertook their responsibilities at a high personal risk and served their students.

Prof. Afzal said that CUI is committed to bringing solutions that can help the government tackle the pandemic through indigenous technology development.

The CUI contributed by developing a Low-cost rapid LAMP based assay for early Covid-19 detection and developing prototypes of CPAP and BiPAP positive airway pressure machines, Pulse Oximeters, IR based Thermal guns. He added that researchers are required to particularly focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and local development priorities before formulating their research projects.

The CUI places emphasis on the research aspect of the ranking as well as extending its facilities to other national institutions for collaboration and research partnership.

For improving its international outreach and profile, CUI has exerted concerted efforts hand in hand with the Pakistan foreign office to offer faculty and student exchange to the Central Asian States including Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan among others.

Recently, a memorandum of understanding with the Technological University of Tajikistan was approved on the occasion of the visit of the Tajik President, Emomali Rahmon to Pakistan to extend cooperation between the two institutions.