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=”19702″]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.)?[/quote]
To me the whole idea of PhDs and research is flawed. We need to produce good engineers and technicians rather than MS and PhDs, because that is what our economy demands.
[quote comment=”15147″]I think any one of u ppl dont know abt GIKI(Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institue of Engineering Sciences and technology);
its is cosidered to be the best of all engg universities. students here are very intelligent and every year every student get a job before his degree. some are selected by Micro soft, some by NEC, Some by OGDC, Shell, etc.
its teaching staff is very tallented and every departement has more than 5 Phds, some teachers here are from UK, Russia etc. GIKI has tough acadeima. a student with with a lowest CGPA get a job with a starting sallary of 30,000/- and those with high CGPA get more than 50,000/-,
Its labs are equiped with new and latest instruments..GIKI Mechanical is topest in asia.
GIKI manages its expanses by its self.No Governement funds are given to it; as given to other universities.
Despite of these facts it is put at No 3, which is not fair.[/quote]
GIKI is definitely better than NUST.
[quote comment=”12029″]Aamir
Bahria university may be part of NUST[/quote]
It is not.
[quote comment=”7377″]Salam & hi all!
I think ranking the universities was a really good idea, and I do agree that there are a few unexpected results, NED or IIEE for instance.
In any case, I would like to state my own thought. The reason why NUST is above GIKI is its distributed campus system. Multiple campuses allow them to hire more PhDs., more labs, more equipment and so on and so forth. PIEAS, on the other hand is “up-there” because of its research (or so I’ve heard), labs equipment etc.
Coming to GIK, if any one of you has ever been here, I think they would agree, that to establish an institute in as remote a region as Topi – Swabi (see, its so remote most of you might be shocked by hearing a town named “Topi”) is a work of dedication and/or a miracle. Agreed that it might not have “progressed” but I sure know it hasn’t slumped.
AG – proud GIKIAN[/quote]
How many PhDs does NUST really have? And does a PhD really matter? You can get PhDs from say Petronas University in Malaysia and MS from MIT. Which one would you rate higehr?
[quote comment=”3819″]An interesting point for me is NUST is now above GIK among Engineering Universities. GIK was established as a de-facto center of excellence but it has fallen down to # 3.[/quote]
I have studied and taught at NUST and have visited GIK a number times. I fail to understand how NUST scored better than GIK.