Pakistan has surpassed India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in the South Asian region, according to Times Higher Education’s Asia University Rankings 2023.
Pakistan has surpassed India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in the South Asian region, according to Times Higher Education’s Asia University Rankings 2023, with more universities making it to the top 200.
The UK-based organisation claims that the top 200 universities now include more South Asian institutions than ever before.
Compared to the 24 universities that made the list in 2022 and the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 25 South Asian universities made the cut, the number of South Asian universities that made the top 200 universities list this year was 32.
According to its blog, “Pakistan leads the charge, with 10 universities in the top 200 this year, up from six last year.
Quaid-i-Azam University, the top-ranked institution in Pakistan, rose from position 116 to 98. The other universities include Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Management and Technology, Government College University Faisalabad, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, and others.
North South University, which wasn’t ranked last year but is now 192nd, and the University of Dhaka, which moves up to 186th place from the 251-300 band, are two Bangladeshi institutions that are featured on the top 200 list for the first time this year.
India, which historically has contributed more to the top 200 rankings than its neighbours, saw a slight increase in its representation, with 18 universities, one more than the previous year. The highest-ranked institution in the nation, the Indian Institute of Science, dropped to 48th place, its lowest position since the ranking’s inception in 2015.
Iran, which is further north, performed much better in this year’s rankings, with 65 universities included in the 2023 rankings, up from 58 last year, and nine institutions in the top 100, three more than in 2017.
The 13 performance indicators that make up THE’s Asia University Rankings 2023 are identical to those that make up THE’s World University Rankings, but they have been modified to account for Asian institutions’ unique characteristics.