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.
so i think the above ranking is not so bad but i reaaly hurt 2 read that PU in GENERAL RANKING has the 2nd rank i think PU should be placed at the top of all universities’ ranking in PAKISTAN n there is no mention of CEEET of pu this is ridiculas
Debating whether a university is ranked right or wrong now feels repititive.
My question is, do we have any information if univesities in Pakistan are trying to take real steps to improve their rating by doing the things that are measured (like PhD, publications, etc.)?
President of Textile institute writes his views on University rankings here:
http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/21/letted.htm#2
Most Pakistani students who go overseas and excell, excell not because of a particular institution but inspite of it. It is always an individual self motivation that help them succeed. I do not recall any of my professors in Pakistan whom I will call a role model! On the contrary, some felt offended when asked critical questions (and got even during viva voce exams)and some befriended “smart students” to avoid embarassment.
That was in the seventies – hope it is different now.
I all fairness, in the absence of mobility and freedom to choose any institution because of domecile/quota issues, it does not matter how HEC rates schools. Most kids (and their families) will opt for the nearest rather than the greatest school.
It really does not really matter who is rank 1 or 10 among pool of several low grade pakistani universities (including GIKI and NUST). I will ever see a day, when we could see either one of those, HEC ranked pakistani universities, to come near top world 100 universities. There is no one pakistani university who can even close to top 500 universities of the world.
I think if we really want to progress at world level, we have to bring real qualities into over universities. That can only be done, if we move from adhocism to real reasearch and education. We spend less than 1% of annual budget on education.