ISLAMABAD – 23 Pakistani universities have made it to the list of the top500 higher education institutes in Asia in the latest QS Asia UniversityRankings 2019.
The annual ranking by world leading ranking authority QuacquarelliSymonds(QS) has been expanded this year to include the top 500 universitiesin Asia.
The number of Pakistani universities in the top league climbed to 23 fromthe previous year’s number of just 16. The leader among Pakistaniuniversities, however, remained the same. National University of Sciencesand Technology (NUST) was again declared the top university in Pakistan inQS Asia University Rankings 2019.
Besides leading the Pakistani brigade, NUST also attained individualimprovement by climbing four places, moving up to 87 on the list from lastyear’s 91st position. NUST also happens to be the 417th best university inthe world according to QS global rankings.
NUST’s research output is rated “very high” and it scored high marks forfaculty-student ratio and employer reputation.
The second position in the list for Pakistan went to Lahore University ofManagement Sciences (LUMS) that was placed 95th in the ranking. LUMS alsowent up the ranking compared to 2018, when it was placed at the 103rd spot.Together, NUST and LUMS are the only two Pakistani universities among thetop 100 in the QS Asia University Rankings 2019.
Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad was at the third position forPakistan, placed 109th among the top 500 Asian universities. QAU alsoshowed improvement, as it was ranked 133rd in 2018 ranking.
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It was followed by COMSATS Institute of Information Technology(CIIT) at the135th spot and Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences(PIEAS) at the 146th. COMSATS climbed 55 places, up from last year’s 190thplace in the ranking, while PIEAS lost some of its lustre as it fell to the146th place from last year’s 128th.
UET Lahore, University of The Punjab and Aga Khan University were the otherthree Pakistani universities among the top 200 institutes in Asia, claimingthe 171st, 193rd, and 195th positions, respectively. All three improved instature, as they were ranked 200th, 232nd, and 234th, respectively, in the2018 ranking.
Besides the 16 universities that were included in the 2018 list, there wereseven new entrants from Pakistan in the QS Asia University Rankings 2019.These included Bahria University Islamabad and International IslamicUniversity Islamabad (IIU) in 351-400 band and University of Sargodha andthe University of Sindh in the 401-450 band. Lahore College for WomenUniversity (LCWU), University of Central Punjab (UCP) and University ofManagement and Technology Lahore (UMT) in the 451-500 band.
Few Universities lost rankings which include included, besides PIEAS,University of Karachi (from 193rd place to 251-260 band), Institute ofSpace Technology (from 271-280 band to 351-400 band), NED University ofEngineering and Technology (from 301-350 band to 351-400 band), TheUniversity of Lahore (from 301-350 band to 401-450 band), University ofVeterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore from (301-350 band to 401-450band)and Mehran University of Engineering & Technology from (351-400 bandto 401-450 band).
It is worth mentioning here that the National University of Singapore, oneof the leading institutes of higher learning in the world, was named thetop university in Asia for 2019, dethroning previous year’s winner NanyangTechnological University (NTU) from the number one spot.
