5 Pakistani Universities Make it To Top Global University Rankings in 2017

The global rankings for universities are out. The new rankings have been done and categorized by one of the most reputed higher education ranking authorities in the world: Times Higher Education Rankings.

They use 13 different performance indicators to rank the universities. The total number of universities included were 980, the highest number ever in these rankings to date. The situation however is not looking good for Pakistani universities and their global rank.

These rankings are also subject to an audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which ensures transparency and legitimacy.

Rankings for Pakistani Universities

Only 5 Pakistani universities made the cut out of the 980 universities that made it to the rankings.

The rankings for top 5 Pakistani universities included in the rankings are as follows:

  • COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, 601-800th place
  • National University of Science and Technology (NUST), 601-800th place
  • Quaid-i-Azam University, 601-800th place
  • University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 801+
  • Bahauddin Zakariya University, 801+

Compared with last year’s rankings, Quaid-i-Azam University has fallen in the rankings significantly from 501-600th place to 601-800th place. COMSATS University on the other hand, has joined NUST in the 601-800th place.

Rankings for India and China

Pakistan’s neighbors have fared well in the rankings, namely China and India.

Indian universities on the other hand are ranked much higher comparatively speaking. Indian Institute of Science was ranked at 201-250th place and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay was ranked 351-400th place. They have 5 universities in the top 500 ranks as well.

China on the other hand has 2 universities ranked in the top 50 and 13 universities in the top 500. Peking University is ranked at 29th while Tsinghua University is ranked at 35th.

Do take note that these are the worldwide rankings, where 29th means being ranked as the 29th best university in the world.

Government’s Efforts To Improve Education in Pakistan

While the government is trying to improve the quality of education in Pakistan, the change has been slow. Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Baligh-ur-Rehman shared the statistics for education in Pakistan recently.

Read More: Education Minister Reveals Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2015-16

The report highlighted that the Net Enrollment rate in primary education has gone up as well as the physical facilities available at schools.

Via Times Higher Education

A techie, gamer, and Senior Editor at ProPakistani.


  • Ranking of universities around the world are based on providing PHDs that how many PHDs in a year a university is providing.

  • Resources allocated for research and actual research done makes for a larger chunk of criteria for university rankings. Unfortunately, we don’t have much of research culture here and the results are not surprising.

  • I wonder why I can’t see LUMS anywhere in the list, or is this ranking only meant to be for public sector universities. Anyone?


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