LAHORE: Five public and private universities of Pakistan have made it to QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019.

Global university ranking experts QS have released their latest QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019, with only three Pakistani universities in top 500 for engineering and technology discipline, one each in Life Sciences and Medicine and Natural Science disciplines.

The QS rankings are one of the most established and well respected rankings of universities around the world and are key reference for students to gauge performance of various universities for comparison with the global higher education scene.

QS studied universities around the world in five disciplines - Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and Management - for this year’s subject rankings.

QS studied each university academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper and H-index (productivity and impact of published work of a scientist or scholar) to arrive at the final raking.

The top university in the world to study engineering and technology is Massachusetts Institute of Technology while Stanford University was placed number two and the third position went to ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, which pushed last year’s number three, University of Cambridge, down to the fourth position on the list.

Only three Pakistani universities have made to the top 500 QS ranking in engineering and technology and they are National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, at 321, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology at 365 and University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore, at 451.

Pakistani engineering universities were found down in the list as compared to the previous year’s ranking and the number of Pakistani universities in the ranking actually shrunk from five in 2018 to just three this year.

Last year, Pakistan had National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad, and University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore in the ranking.

Another Pakistani university that made it to the QS ranking discipline of Life Sciences and Medicine is Aga Khan University and its band in 301-350 position.The QAU, Islamabad, also made to the QS ranking in discipline of Natural Science and its stand on band 401-450.

QS ranking also include Specific Subject ranking and a number of Pakistani universities made to it. In the subject of Business and Management Studies the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has been given ranking 301-350 and NUST Islamabad from 401-450.

In Economics and Econometrics, LUMS has been given ranking from 351-400, the QAU from 401-450 and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 451-500.

In the subject of Physics and Astronomy, the QAU has been given ranking 301-350, NUST, Islamabad, from 351-400, while COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 501-550, LUMS from 501-550 and the University of the Punjab from 501-550.

In the subject of Engineering - Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing - NUST, Islamabad, has been ranked 351-400, the UET, Lahore, from 401-450 and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 451-500.

In the subject of Agriculture and Forestry, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, made to ranking at 101-150, Arid Agriculture University from 201-250, the QAU from 201-250 and University of the Punjab from 251-300

In Chemistry, the University of Karachi stands at 401-450, the QAU 451-500 and University of the Punjab from 501-550.

In the subject of Computer Science, the NUST, Islamabad, is at 201-250, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 301-350, LUMS from 351-400 and the QAU from 451-500.

In Electrical Engineering, NUST, Islamabad, has been given ranking 251-300, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology 301-350, the UET, Lahore, 351-400 and LUMS 451-500.

In Mathematics, NUST, Islamabad, made it to 301-350, the QUA 301-350 and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 351-400.

In Medicine, the Aga Khan University was given ranking from 301-350 and Pharmacy and Pharmacology, the University of Karachi was given ranking from 251-300.

India has 10 engineering universities on the list, with the highest rank achieved by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) named the 53rd best university in the world for engineering for 2019. The IITB improved its ranking considerably this year, moving up 11 places to the 53rd from previous year’s 64th.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2019