Why Pakistani Universities Are Not Featured in the Top Rankings?
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Whenever QS or Time’s issue world rankings for universities, a hue and cry is initiated in media about why our universities are seemingly unable to break into the top universities of the world.
It’s not unwarranted though because the simple fact of the matter is that our universities do not break the top 500 in the world rankings and not even the top 100 of Asian rankings by QS and Time, which are the most reputed ranking bodies in the world.
In QS rankings, the first Pakistani flag is visible after you scroll down about 700 places till you find LUMS, which is also 111th in Asia according to QS rankings. Similarly, according to Times, the 1st Pakistani university to appear in World ranking is Quaide Azam University having 601+ rank and it ranks 101+ in Asia.
One of the main reasons is the emphasis of HEC and universities in Pakistan of quantity over quality. The universities force faculty to publish as much research articles as they can even if they are published in junk journals.
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Pakistan is currently ranked 46 in the World by Scimago in terms of citations. Our near neighbors like India and Iran ranks 9 and 22, respectively. The decline of Pakistani universities rankings is inevitable if we do not prioritize quality over quantity.
HEC must follow the QS and TIMES ranking criteria and must only encourage citable research articles.
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