LONDON – Pakistan has surpassed India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asian region, with more universities making it to the top 200 varsities in Times Higher Education’s Asia University Rankings 2023.
The UK-based organization said the number of South Asian universities in the top 200 has climbed to a five-year high.
There are 32 universities from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in the top 200 this year – a marked rise from 24 universities in 2022 and higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 25 institutions from South Asia made the cut.
“Pakistan leads the charge, with 10 universities in the top 200 this year, up from six last year,” it said in its blog.
In Pakistan, the highest-ranking institution is Quaid-i-Azam University, which rose from 116th to 98th place. The other varsities include University of Management and Technology, Government College University Faisalabad, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan and others.
This year’s top 200 list also includes two institutions from Bangladesh for the first time: the University of Dhaka, which moves up from the 251-300 band to 186th place; and North South University, which was not ranked last year and is now 192nd.
India, which has traditionally been a larger contributor to the top 200 ranks than its neighbours, had only a slight boost in representation in this year’s league tables, with 18 universities – one more than last year. Meanwhile, its highest-ranking university, the Indian Institute of Science, slipped to 48th place – its lowest rank since 2015, when it first entered the ranking.
Further north, Iran improved significantly in this year’s rankings, with 65 universities in the 2023 rankings, up from 58 last year, and nine institutions in the top 100 – three more than last year.
THE’s Asia University Rankings uses the same 13 performance indicators as the World University Rankings, but they are recalibrated to reflect the attributes of Asia’s institutions.
