Times Higher Education (THE) recently published the 2023 World University Rankings. Three Asian universities are among the top twenty.
These are Tsinghua University (No. 16), Peking University (No. 17), and the National University of Singapore (No. 19), which have surpassed Cornell University in the rankings, indicating the rise of Asian institutions among the world’s top institutions.
Quaid-e-Azam University was ranked in the top 500 universities in the world, a highly coveted goal for developing countries.
With the establishment of the Higher Education Commission in October 2002, Pakistan made an excellent start in reforming the higher education sector.
The programmes initiated by the HEC in those early years were visionary and trailblazing, so much so that within five years of its establishment, several Pakistani universities were ranked among the top 500 in the world in THE-QS World University Rankings, with the National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, leading the way, being ranked at No 470 in 2007, No 376 in 2008, and No 350 in 2009.
Others ranked among the top 500 universities in THE-QS subject rankings during that time period included Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University, Lahore’s University of Engineering and Technology, and Karachi’s University of Karachi.
Unfortunately, government support dwindled over time, and the universities dropped out of the “THE” World University Rankings.
USAID conducted a comprehensive study of HEC programmes from 2003 to 2008 and published a 151-page detailed report of their findings in 2009.
Dr. Fred M. Hayward, an experienced international consultant, Dr. Gerald Boardman, a higher education specialist, and several other distinguished international experts led the team.
To determine the current state of affairs, USAID education experts made physical site visits to eighteen universities and institutes in Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Lahore, Karachi, and other cities in Pakistan.
Over a 12-month period, they interviewed hundreds of teachers, students, vice-chancellors, deans, department chairs, principal investigators and technical staff of science research projects, as well as officials from the HEC, Ministry of Education, and others.
This first comprehensive report of the HEC conducted by USAID concluded by paying glowing tributes to the HEC’s excellent work in Pakistan in implementing the Medium-Term Development Framework (MTDF) with a primary focus on higher education quality rather than numbers.
The HEC identified three main thrust areas in the MTDF: higher education quality, student access to higher education, and higher education relevance to national needs.
The report concluded that the HEC had made significant progress in each of these areas over a six-year period.
To read our blog on “To implement ETF and promote collaboration across educational institutions, HEC and Microsoft organized “Microsoft Campus Connect Day 2022”,” click here
