THE not too long ago revealed QS World Universities Rankings 2027 have grow to be a subject of appreciable dialog for Pakistani social and print media. Reviews and posts on the topic have primarily identified that no Pakistani college has been ranked among the many world’s prime 350 universities. The Quaid-i-Azam College (QAU), at 381, is our prime entry within the QS rankings. Nevertheless, we must always keep in mind that quite a lot of particular person applications — although not the general college place — are ranked a lot greater. Nust, the College of Engineering & Know-how and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute have engineering applications ranked within the 100-200 vary; Lums and IBA have related rankings for economics, enterprise and social science applications; AKU is ranked excessive for medication applications.
The rankings are, at greatest, a tough measure of high quality. However they do reveal rather a lot. If we don’t have a college within the prime 350, it does say fairly a bit concerning the precedence accorded to schooling in Pakistan. And, realizing our price range allocations for schooling generally in addition to greater schooling, and our different spending priorities, it isn’t a shock. If our authorities spends lower than one % of GDP on schooling, together with expenditure on faculty schooling, is it any shock that we don’t have any universities within the prime 350?
Lest you are feeling that assets should not essential, do take into account that among the many prime 100 universities, other than developed and high-income international locations (the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and many others.), Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina are the one three international locations with one college every within the rankings.
The international locations with universities within the prime 200 rankings embody: Qatar (1), India (3), Chile (2), Brazil (1), Mexico (2), the UAE (1), Kazakhstan (1), South Africa (1), Indonesia (1), Malaysia (4), Saudi Arabia (3) and Argentina (1). As you possibly can see, these are all international locations whose per capita revenue is way greater than Pakistan’s and whose spending on schooling as a share of GDP can be far more.
The ‘World Universities Rankings’ could also be a tough measure of high quality. However they do reveal rather a lot.
One other indication that assets matter comes from college budgets and endowments. MIT, ranked the highest in QS rankings, has an endowment of $27.4 billion and an operational price range of $6bn a yr. Imperial School has a price range of $1.7bn, Stanford College $8.7bn, and the College of Oxford $3.6bn. Personal American universities are based mostly on the endowment mannequin and prime universities have endowments going into billions of {dollars}: MIT $27.4bn (as talked about above), Stanford $40.8bn and Harvard $55.7bn. The highest European, Chinese language and Singaporean universities are given giant transfers from the federal government yearly. Pakistani universities don’t get a lot cash from the federal government and none, non-public or public, have any endowments to talk of.
IIT Delhi, ranked at 118, the highest Indian college within the rankings. It has an estimated operational price range of $100-150 million. QAU, the highest ranked Pakistani college, has a price range estimated round $15m. Cornell College spends some $1 billion per yr on analysis. High Chinese language universities spend multiples of that. IIT salaries for college, for comparable ranges, are round $25,000 per yr to $6,500 for QAU!
So, it could have been a shock if a Pakistani college was within the prime 100 or 200. However, extra importantly, had even one Pakistani college been so ranked, it could not have mentioned a lot for the state of upper schooling within the nation as an entire. International locations which have sturdy greater schooling sectors, historically developed ones or newly rising ones like China, all have quite a few universities within the prime tier. A number of universities on the prime signifies the precedence for greater schooling in addition to the depth and breadth of high quality obtainable within the nation.
By design or by default — although I feel it’s extra by design — the variables within the QS rankings do give a sure benefit to older, bigger, richer and extra established universities. Every rating has a barely completely different method of arriving at variables of significance. QS rankings are based mostly on 5 areas: analysis and discovery (relative weight 50pc), employability and end result (20pc), studying expertise (10pc), world engagement (15pc) and sustainability (5pc). This implies analysis weighs in fairly closely. Inside analysis, educational status accounts for 30pc and school citations 20pc. Tutorial status, after all, provides a sure benefit to older, richer and extra established universities and universities in developed or high-income international locations. Equally, within the employability class, employer status accounts for 15pc of the whole 20pc weight, with 5pc for employment outcomes. Once more, these tilt extra in direction of established universities and people from richer international locations. Lastly, the 15pc metric for world engagement, based mostly on the worldwide college ratio, worldwide collaborations and worldwide pupil ratio, additionally favors conventional universities and vacation spot international locations.
The impact of the above could be seen within the rankings of a number of the prime Chinese language universities. The highest Chinese language universities, rating as excessive as 13 and 14 on this planet, do exceptionally properly on analysis and educating variables, however are pretty common or do poorly on the worldwide college and worldwide pupil ratios. However that is hardly a mirrored image on the colleges, given how the Chinese language financial system and political system have been evolving. The identical would maintain true for universities making an attempt to observe the event trajectory. Can one consider a college in Pakistan right now with numerous college students from a various vary of nations?
Though it’s a disgrace that we don’t have top-ranked universities within the nation, it could really be a shock if we did have one or just a few. That may be such an anomaly. We don’t spend the kind of cash that high quality greater schooling establishments, non-public or public, want. We don’t have cash for analysis or college salaries. So, how can we get top-ranked universities? Extra importantly, ought to we even attempt for one to succeed in the highest 100 or 200 when your complete greater schooling sector is plagued with severe challenges? Or ought to we deal with broader measures that align incentives with higher efficiency throughout the sector after which help top-tier private and non-private universities to scale newer heights?
The author is a senior analysis fellow on the Institute of Improvement and Financial Options and an affiliate professor of economics at Lums.
Revealed in Daybreak, July third, 2026
