The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings agency, which conducts the most diverse and largest university rankings in the world, met the Pakistan Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Thursday, 2 September 2021 to present the latest rankings of Pakistani universities. The team for THE was led by the Chief Knowledge Officer Phil Baty and Dr Liz Shepard who is the Chief Data Scientist at THE. Phil Baty congratulated the Minister for brilliant performance of Pakistani universities in the World Universities Rankings 2022. The meeting was also attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Commission.

More than 16,000 universities assessed this year across 99 countries and territories by THE, 21 Pakistani universities have made into the list, and out of these, 11 are in the top 1,000 list. From just two universities in 2016 in the top 1000 list to eight in 2021 and now 11 this year, the citations for Pakistani research publications have increased significantly indicating that Pakistan is not only producing more research papers but that the researchers are engaged in quality research and publishing in high impact journals.

According to the global ranking, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) featured in the 300 rank-band, while the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and COMSATS University Islamabad featured in the 400rank-band. The University of Lahore and NED University of Engineering and Technology were in the 401-600 rank-band, while Fatima Jinnah Women University, Jinnah Sindh Medical University and the University of Sargodha were in the 601-800 rank band. The Iqra University, Dow University of Health Sciences and Quaid-e-Azam University were in the 801-1,000 rank-band. THE Impact Rankings 2021 can be accessed here for more details.

As per THE analysis, Pakistan is one of the world’s fastest improving nations on a range of key metrics and is one of the top five nations globally for improvements in research citations, international outlook and industry links. The analysis also shows that this is not a one-time achievement for Pakistani HEIs but this upwards trend in noticeable over last three years performance. Federal Minister also emphasized that the universities of Pakistan must aim to go higher in the rankings and for that the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training and Higher Education Commission (HEC) will work together to identify gaps in performance and support the higher education institutions in overcoming the hurdles.

British Council comments:

Starting with only two universities in the THE 2016 ranking, the total number of ranked universities has risen to 21 in a span of five years. Also, with an upward shift in universities ranking order, it signals an improvement in the universities’ capabilities and competence on a number of fronts and particularly in relation to international standards. However, this is a moderate proportion of world class universities in relation to the young population and the growing numbers of outbound students from Pakistan in recent years means that students will continue to look for quality education overseas.
Given that the ranking metrics of THE assessment, Pakistan is one of the top five nations in the world for improvement in research citations, international outlook and industry links, it holds promise for the UK universities who are interested to explore joint research partnership.