HEC issued 5th ranking list of Pakistani Universities

Higher Education Commission (HEC) yesterday has proclaimed the 5th ranking of Pakistani Higher Education Institutions for academic year 2013-2014 along with an objective to boost academic as well as the research culture between the universities, and inspire them to compete at the international level.

This ranking of HEC was passed out under different class involving the Engineering and Technology, Business Education, Agriculture and Veterinary, Medical, and Arts as well as Design.

The main criteria for the appraisal of universities were Quality Assurance, Teaching Quality, Research, Finance and Facilities, as well as the Social Integration or the Community Development.

Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad topped the complete ranking list. Quaid-e-Azam University is followed by University of the Punjab Lahore, National University of Sciences and Technology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Aga Khan University, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), University of Karachi, University of Health Sciences Lahore, as well as the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore.

Underneath the Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences grouping, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad has topped the list and it is followed by the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, and Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences.

Iqra University Karachi, has topped up in the Business class. Whereas this university is followed by Lahore School of Economics, Institute of Business Administration Karachi, Institute of Management Science Peshawar, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, SZABIST, The  Superior College Lahore, Institute of Business Management Karachi, University of Central Punjab Lahore, Greenwich University, Karachi as well as many others.

Beneath the grouping of Arts, National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore stayed at the top while it is followed by Indus Valley School of Art as well as Architecture Karachi.

Aga Khan University is at the top position between the universities falling beneath the Medial group. This university is then followed by the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Dow University of Health Sciences Karachi and Khyber Medical University Peshawar respectively.

The ranking also covered the Engineering class consisting of the twenty one universities along with the National University of Sciences and Technology  (NUST) followed by Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) Islamabad, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Topi, as well as  Institute of Space Technology Islamabad. As many as 73 higher education institutions have made their place in the General group along with the QAU, Islamabad; PU, Lahore; COMSATS, Islamabad; KU; PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi; Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore; Government College University (GCU), Faisalabad; and University of Peshawar at the top.

The chairperson of higher education commission Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, Chairman, while announcing the ranking in a press conference organized here briefed the media regarding the objectives as wella s the procedure of the ranking.

He said the ranking is based on the data collected during the academic year 2013-14, adding that Higher Education Commission verified as well as counter-checked the data from all the universities before gathering the final ranking.

He added that 129 universities were look over for ranking, whereas 66 parameters were espoused for scoring adding that Distance Learning Institutions as well as the HEIs established after June 2010 were not involved in the ranking. He said that Higher Education Commission will begin its working on the ranking for 2015 in March.

To the query about the illegal campuses of universities, the Chairman said that Higher Education Commission is against the commercialization of higher education and it has been cautionary time to time regarding the illegal campuses via media so that the future of aspirants can be secured.

While answering another query related to the destitutions of PhD scholars, especially with respect to the powers of supervisors, he said that Higher Education Commission has permitted the scholars to request for the change of their supervisor in the case of any objection.

When asked regarding the initiatives of Higher Education commission in different disciplines of Social Sciences, he said that Higher Education commission also pays special attention for the promotion of the Social Sciences in the state.

He invited the journalists to attend the conference of higher education commission on Social Sciences that is going to be organized today.

Acting Executive Director of Higher Education Commission Dr G Raza Bhatti, earlier Vice Chancellor  QAU Dr Qasim Jan, Dr Mazhar Saeed, DG (P&D) and Ahmad Yahya Khan, DG (Statistics) were also present on the event.