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.
[quote comment=”3778″]Since you guys are talking about NED. Can I ask a question why not many NEDians make their way to foreign universities in the west? Pakistan is sending most students from Punjab and Islamabad. Last I heard Karachi still holds top most position in literacy rate then why we are not seeing that representation in the west. I hope its not low standard of education…[/quote]
My two nephews who came to UK after graduating from UET Lahore say all (I guess they mean most) of their fellow Pakistani students in UK are from Karachi. So I guess some are definitely coming to west.
How do you come to the conclusion on the literacy rate? I suppose Islamabad should be the highest.
Since you guys are talking about NED. Can I ask a question why not many NEDians make their way to foreign universities in the west? Pakistan is sending most students from Punjab and Islamabad. Last I heard Karachi still holds top most position in literacy rate then why we are not seeing that representation in the west. I hope its not low standard of education…
In other news, Younis Khan seems to have re-ignited the fires of controversy in the Pakistan cricket camp.
I agree with Bilal on this issue. Pakistan has a handful of good schools but the fact is that most of the top institutions are considered good because their students are much more resourceful than the general population.
How come there are 3, 4 or 6 in each list? Why not say top ten in each list?
NED, and DMC should be there somewhere
[quote post=”341″]The last two are clearly about student quality. The first focusses only on ‘university’ eductaion, so even a BA degree will not count. And number 2 and 3 focus on research aspects, which is what universities are for.[/quote]
No, it is still not about student quality. Would a PhD produced from say LUMS or GIKI not have more value than one from PU?
Case in point: a few months ago a few professors from the PU faculty were charged for plagiarism at an international conference. If this the sort of supervisors and atmosphere you work then what sort of product would you churn out? My point still holds – the criterion is just looking at it quantitatively, not qualitatively.
Dear Farrukh. You are right. A case needs to be made if I think NED is better than others. I also admit that I am a bit biased towards NED because I studied there.