LAHORE (Web Desk) – Pakistan has the world’s weakest higher education system while US and UK have the strongest. As per the latest report by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British ranking agency,Pakistan has been ranked 50, with an overall score of 9.2 Despite the government’s tall claims to have invested billions in the country’s education system, Pakistan secured the lowest ranking of the fifty countries included in the list.
The United States tops the list with an overall score of 100 points, followed by the United Kingdom (98.5 points). While, India with 60.9 points managed to bag 24th rank.
The QS higher education system rankings is divided into four categories:
System strength, Access, Flagship institution and Economic context.
Countries with the best higher education systems as depicted in the report are as follows:
1.United States – 100
2.United Kingdom – 98.5
3.Germany – 94
4.Australia – 92.6
5.Canada – 90.2
6.France – 89
7.Netherlands – 84.8
8.China – 83.5
9.South Korea – 80.1
10.Japan – 78.5
System Strength
The System Strength category gauges ‘overall national system strength’, based on how many of the country’s universities are featured in international rankings.
“Each country is awarded a score based on the number of its institutions which are ranked 700 or above in the QS World University Rankings®, divided by the average position of those institutions. The aim is to give an overall indication of each country’s standing in the global ranking tables,” the website stated.
Access
Varsities under this category are ranked according to the number of places available at internationally ranked universities.
Flagship institution
The ‘flagship’ category analyses the performance of the country’s leading institution within global rankings.
“This is a normalised score, based on the place each nation’s top university occupies in the QS World University Rankings.”
Economic context
The economic context covers the impact of “national investment in higher education, by comparing each nation’s financial situation to its performance in the international rankings.”
It is pertinent to mention that Of the 50 countries included in the index, almost half (22) are in Europe. Pakistan been ranked at the bottom of the table with a meager score of 9.2.
Read More:QS report on educational rankings 2016
