Owais Mughal
Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has recently released the university rankings of Pakistan. The rankings are generating so much interest that I am receiving four to five emails daily with people forwarding me the same link to HEC’s ranking web page. (Scroll down to see rankings and details).
I am kind of disappointed with my alma-mater, NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi, ranked at number 10 out of the 13 Engineering Universities of Pakistan. The photo to the right-below shows few views of NED University.
I genuinely and of course with a little bias think that NED university should have been ranked among the top 3. When I make such claim; I do it on the basis of sheer engineering talent I’ve personally seen at NED. But rankings do not take into account the student talent. They look at finances, faculty, number of students etc. My university mates as well as the university officials have already started the discussion on how to improve the rankings next year. This discussion is going on at many NED online alumni groups. I am sure similar discussions are going on within other university alumni too. This I think, is a positive sign of publishing a list like this as it does create competition.
Here are the key leaders in the ranking:
Agriculture / Veterinary
1. University of Agriculture (UAF), Faisalabad
2. NWFP University of Agriculture , Peshawar
3. University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi
4. Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam
Art / Design
1. National College of Arts, Lahore
2. Textile Institute of Pakistan, Karachi
3. Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, Karachi
Business / I.T.
1. Lahore Uni. of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore
2. Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi
3. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Sci. & Tech. Karachi
4. Iqra University, Defence View, Karachi
5. Lahore School of Economics (LSE) , Lahore
6. Institute of Business Management (IBM), Karachi
Engineering
1. Pakistan Institute of Engg. and Applied Sciences, Islamabad
2. National University of Sciences & Technology Rawalpindi
3. Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering, Swabi
4. University of Engg. & Technology (UET), Lahore
5. Mehran University of Engg. & Technology (MUET), Jamshoro
6. University of Engg. & Technology (UET), Taxila
General
1. Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad
2. University of the Punjab, Lahore
3. University of Karachi, Karachi
4. University of Peshawar, Peshawar
5. Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan
6. Government College Lahore University, Lahore
Health Sciences
1. Aga Khan University, Karachi
2. Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro
3. Baqai Medical University, Karachi
4. Zia-ud-din Medical University, Karachi
You can have a look at the complete rankings, including the scores, the criteria and the methodology of scoring here. I would like to hear your opinion.
ATP’s another post related to University Education and rankings system can be seen here.
Just ranking within Pakistan will not do. None of the Pakistani Universities is ranked within the first one thousand of world Universities.(See the statement of Chairman, HEC).
Secondly, by just possessing a Ph.D. by a faculty member means nothing. For example Punjab University is notorious for Plagiarism and other unfair means by the teachers. The level of Ph.D. and M.Phil research is extremely poor and much below the standards (any standards). It is the policy of an army general Vice Chancellor to produce a bulk of high degree holders, regardless of quality. He thinks that he can prove his administrative abilities by citing numbers. What a flawed criteria of excellence.
Think about it!
The whole dabate about the ranking business is meaningless.
Controversy continues; (http://www.jang-group.com/jang/oct2006-daily/28-10-2006/tsk/tsk1.gif)
I AM SURPRISED TO FIND THAT NED DID NOT STAND ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSITIES RANKING. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ONE OF THE BEST UNIVERSITIES IN PAKISTAN. WHAT IS THE CRITERIA OF RANKING? LOOKS LIKE IT HAS MAJOR FLAWS IN THE SYSTEM
AKU still ranks at No.1 considering the total points. This too after AKU started its PhD program a mere 4 years back. AKU is building its college of arts and sciences with a funding of close to 250 million dollars. This part of the Univerity will be complete by 2008. Theres no way any other University in Pakistan will come close to AKU.
KEMC, and other so called “Univerities” will fair poorly against AKU, since they have no PhD programs, no labs, no research funding…..
*Yawn*
1) HEC did a good thing by starting these rankings
2) They should refine their system further. Have a look at the methodology/details on their website. They rank the student body at LUMS lower than QAU. Now that’s a joke!
3) Colleges should also be included (KEMC et al.)
4) Hope this will bring about healthy, rather than immature, competition.
Best Regards.
AR