LAHORE: Nineteen public and private sector universities from Pakistan made into the 2026 edition of the QS World University Rankings.
Over 1,500 of the wor-ld鈥檚 top universities are included in the rankings released this week, with over 100 countries represented around the world.
For yet another year, the Massachusetts Institu–te of Technology (MIT) has been ranked as the best university in the world, while nearly 500 varsities have improved their performance since last year. Of these, the biggest clim-ber is the Sunway Uni-versity in Malaysia, which rose over 120 places.
Pakistani universities ranked among the top 500 include Quaid-i-Azam Uni——versity Islam-abad at 354 and National Uni-v-ersity of Sciences & Tech-nology (NUST) Islamabad at 371.
Universities that were among the top 1,000 are the University of the Pun-jab at 542, Lahore Uni–ve-r-sity of Management Scien-ces (LUMS) at 555, Unive-r-sity of Agriculture Fai-sa-l-abad (UAF) at 654, COMSATS University Isla–mabad at 664, Pakistan Ins–titute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) Islam-abad 721-730, Government College University Fais-al-abad 761-770, University of Engine-ering & Tech-no-logy (UET) Lahore 801-850, Uni–versity of Pesha-war 901-950 and The Uni-versity of Lahore at 951-1000.
19 Pakistani institutions feature in this year鈥檚 World University Rankings
Aga Khan University Karachi and University of Karachi were featured am-ong the 1001-1200 ran-ked, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Inter-natio-nal Islamic Univer-si–ty Islamabad (IIU), Rip-hah International Univer-sity Islam-abad, and Univ-e-rsity of Management and Technology Lahore featu-red among 1201-1400 ran-ked and The Islamia Uni-versity of Bahawalpur was in the 1401+.
Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muh-a-mmad Ali Shah said the PU had significantly imp-roved in the QS Rankings and currently ranked at 542 while last year it was at 570. He called the international rankings a significant parameter to assess university performance to attract the best students to the leading universities. He said that PU was ran-ked number 1 in Pakistan in 鈥淓mployment Outcom–es鈥 indicator by ensuring a high level of employability for its graduates and also nurturing future leaders in their respective fields of study.
The VC said that in coming years, the focus of the incumbent administration would be on further imp-roving the international rankings of the university.
鈥淭he university will be involved in community en–gagement, environmental awareness, efficient use of renewable energy, effici-ent water and waste management, carbon emissio-ns and diversity,鈥 Prof Shah said in a statement. The VC vowed that the PU would make sure that every faculty member contributed to research and it would develop a mechanism to reward the top cited authors.
Published in Dawn, June 21th, 2025