None of the Muslim Countries Ranked in Asia-Pacific’s Innovative Universities List

Reuters has released its second annual ranking of the Asia Pacific region’s Most Innovative Universities. The list identifies and ranks institutes based on their contribution in the invention of new technologies and advancement of science as a whole.

Criteria

The ranking was a collaborative effort of Reuters and its former analytics wing, Clarivate. 600 institutes and organizations were identified and were shortlisted to 150. Number of patents filed, which were listed in the Derwent World Patents Index and Innovations Index between 2010 and 2015, along with patent equivalents, patent citations, article citations and their impact was considered.

Scores from 10 categories was summed up to achieve the final rankings.

Top Ranked Universities

The list is topped by Chinese and South Korean universities. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), one of the oldest research oriented science and engineering institutes in South Korea, took the top spot. It produces a huge volume of influential inventions and submitted more patents than 74 outs of the 75 ranked universities. Even outside researchers often cited patents and research papers from KAIST.

Amongst the top university’s highlight researches is the development of a parasite robot that can control the movements of its living host. Its Humanoid Robot Research Center won the U.S. Department of Defense’s DARPA Robotics Challenge with an adaptable humanoid robot.

The second, fourth and fifth ranked universities are also from South Korea. Eight out of the top 20 are from the country, far more than what one would expect from a small country.

China has the most number of innovative universities in the region – 25 out of 75. It is followed by South Korea with 22, Japan with 19, Australia with five and Singapore with two. The remaining two, which made the list, are from New Zealand and India.

Pakistan and Other Muslim Countries

Even Reuters found it odd that there were no universities from Indonesia, Pakistan or Bangladesh, three of the most populous countries in the region after China and India. None of the institutes in any of the Muslim countries in the whole of Asia Pacific region made the cut which is a clear indication of the lack of focus on education and technology.

The complete list of universities is available here.

He is the Chief Content Officer at ProPakistani. Reach out at aadil.s[at]propakistani.pk


  • Thank goodness American University in Beirut and American University in Cairo have been in the running for a while now. AUCian and Proud!

    • My experience at AUC was quite different — I found it to be an elitist hotpot of social and economic discrimination, where apartheid was practiced in full swing.
      At US$ 15,000 per semester, for an undergraduate course with a university ranked in the 450-460 range (as per QS system) in the world, is it really better than universities in Pakistan? Comparatively, NUST is in 430-440 range on the same world renowned ranking system (2017 ranking) for a fees of US$ 2,000/- per semester.
      Furthermore, how many ordinary Egyptians actually go to study there? And by ordinary I mean middle, lower middle class people? Not people from Maadi or Mohandeseen or gated Palm Hills community, but from Ashwiyats, where 60% of the city’s population lives?
      NUST has children of middle and lower middle class as well as high SEC fro a price which is almost 8 times less.
      Thank goodness you were in AUC or AUB — please stay there!

      • Looks like you had a bad experience there. I was there for the full 4 year program and studied at PISC (school by Pakistan Embassy) for O/A Levels. Studied in the old campus as well as bared the headaches to the new one as well. Some might say that it felt like apartheid if you only hung out with 2-3 groups. As someone who was a member of the student union and 5 other student clubs including handing international student transcripts for the OSD. I will tell you it was quite different. Then again everyone is entitled to their opinion. And I welcome your too.

        Every semester (twice a year that is 900 new students) (2450 Egyptians form the 24 governesses of Egypt are given full scholarships to study in AUC for 45,000 USD. This is out of nearly 3000 applicants who pass their version of metric called Sanawa Amma. It was called the LEADS program by USAID.
        Then , there is the International LEADS program that gives scholarships to refugee students based in Cairo, from Palestine and Sudan called the International LEADS program. 7 of there Master’s programs have been recognized as leading programs in Internationally.

  • Muslims believe in Quantity (not quality) and do their best to increase number of muslims. Same is the case with our educational system. Even PhD thesis are copy paste.

  • There is no need to mention religion while talking about Science, technology and innovation. Kindly stop dragging religion into everything.

    Pakistanis and Muslims in general are being sidelined now a days. This is because we drag religion into everything ( At workplace, universities, general etc) . Even in Science we do mention the religion first and then anything else. This is not how the thing works.

    As long as Religion will be dragged into everything then so called Pure Islamic countries will never progress. Also Why we are excluding Non-Muslim citizens by calling ourself as Purely Exclusively Islamic country only?. There are more than 60 Million Non Muslim Pakistanis. They have equal rights as well or not?.
    Just call yourself as Pakistani. Make an All Inclusive policy kindly.

    • Because Our religion Islam is the way of life covering each and every aspect of society

    • Pakistan and Islam is the same thing. This country created on the name of Islam. Just say one sentence in my favor, “Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha IllAllah”

    • My dear Sami, where did you get these ridiculous numbers? 60 million non-Muslims in Pakistan? Pakistan has 98% Muslim population — 2% of even the latest Census numbers of 200million is just 4 million.
      Next, I agree with Salman and Haider, however, I also think that we should not drag religion into things that do not need it, even the Prophet (PBUH) himself traded with people from all religions, but according to Islamic rules of trading.
      The question is why some people are so averse to Islam as a complete Way of Life? Nothing small or great has been skipped from the smallest thing (like sleeping and how to sleep) to the biggest (like nations and their interactions) in Islam.
      Going back to what Salman and Haider said this country was made in the name of Islam, and is the only country EVER (even Madina became Muslim as the Prophet migrated and the Jewish and Christian populations converted to Islam) in the history of mankind that was CREATED for Islam. Be proud not ashamed of that distinction.
      Now if only we became Muslims as we were supposed to be, we could become the world leaders. Why we are the failures is because we never followed Islam, and the country got hijacked by either uneducated zealots (who had nothing to do with REAL islam, but were just polishing their own agendas) or secularist fascists in the middle.


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