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.
Chandio Sahib
I second your opinion that no city or place is better than other in terms of calibre or talent. The difference is in opportunities. Some cities or places offer more opportunities than others.
Mehran is a very good uinversity. No doubt on that. I also like the architecture of its campus :) which has nothing to do with its rankings ofcourse.
@ Fahad…
Sir i can assure u whatever it may be…they’re not doing it to “devalue” karachi…roads all over the country are dug up…there were a large number of cases of dengue fever in isb n rwp aswell and absolutely no preventive measures were taken…y wud they build another port in karachi when it already has one? These “mishaps” as u call them are true for the whole country and not a particular location…
The standards of universities in Pakistan have been greatly reduced over the years irrespective of location…
But i still fail to understand how Mehran University Jamshoro can claim the 5th spot when NED is at 10 or 11th place ?! Whatever the criteria, it truly defies common sense !
Mr. Rizvi, why can’t Mehran Univeristy be higher than Karachi? What are you trying to say?
The criteria are clear on the HEC website. Have you ever been to Mehran Univeristy, or just have some silly idea tat only Karachi can have success. Mehran is higher becasue more of its faculty actually has PhDs. Also it is higher because it ACTAULLY DOES RESEARCH. What univeristies are supposed to do.
i think that the main cause of these dramatical drops of institutes is something to do with the city values.. speaking frankly,i would say that karachi is being targeted to be devalued. in other fields as well, one can notice that. e.g, the construction os a sea port at gawadar..that would de value karachi..the construction work in karachi just gets started and just when the streeets and roads are dugged up, the construction work comes to a halt…now if u see karachi., the city gives vision of moen-jo-daro at some places. dengue fever causing mosquitoes here were dealt with very carelessly and at last, the city is on the mercy of weather. I mean the experts said that cold will make this disappear and then, the preventive measures were stopped by the government. Why is this not happening in any other part of the country? why are all of these “mis-haps” happening in Karachi? so the lowering name of NED in HEC ranking is the part of the same game…the government officials also r not taking interest to higher or atleast mantain the standards of the institutes at Karachi.
The sole purpose of building GIKI at an enormous cost and in a remote location was for it to be the best engineering institute in the country and a center of excellence.
It is truly heart breaking to see how institutions with such potential are slowly degrading due to a lack of effort and incompetence.
Instead of establishing new engineering institutes and universities in the country at public expense the govt. and HEC should try focusing their energy and effort at improving institutions like GIKI to make them good enough to compete with international institutes and universities.