Ranking of Pakistani Universities in the world

A lot of students want to know where Pakistani Universities are ranked in the world? A few universities from Pakistan have been ranked in the 500 Universities of the world by QS ranking. QS is a private organization that ranks universities and publishes on its website. But the key point to remember is that QS only ranks those universities that actually apply to QS for ranking specially if its in the third world. It does not automatically consider all universities. Therefore even a good university that does not apply does not get ranked.

In this post I would like to clarify a couple of confusions that students have regarding international ranking of Pakistani Universities.

Generally students think that if a university is ranked by QS it would improve their job prospects internationally, and improve chances of getting admission in a good university abroad after graduation. Well in my personal opinion both of these assumptions are not valid. Frankly speaking none of the Pakistani Universities has the kind of reputation that would attract international employers. Big multinationals, technology companies, and international organizations based in Europe, USA, UK, Australia do not hire graduates of Pakistani universities directly for job openings in developed countries. There are plenty of far superior universities in developed countries that can provide all the graduate that they need. Therefore being a graduate of NUST or university of Lahore which have been ranked in the top 500 universities by QS hardly improves your job prospects internationally.

Another key difference to understand is that recognition of a university and ranking of a university are two different things. Any university recognized by HEC Pakistan is recognized internationally as well due to bi-lateral Government agreements. Therefore a degree obtained in Pakistan will be considered valid for all eligibility requirements for admission or job, BUT that does not mean that you would get the job or the admission. It is just the minimum requirement to be met, but not a sufficient requirement. Rest depends on your other credentials like previous experiences, grades, further education, GRE or GMAT scores etc.

Similarly for doctors going to United States it hardly matters where they got the degree from, so long as it is recognized by HEC. They need to get a really good score in USMLE to be able to get a residency in the united States.

Therefore if I were a student I would not pay too much attention to the international ranking of a Pakistani university being declared by a private ranking organization. I would instead concentrate on gaining sound professional knowledge and skill in my chosen area, read a lot to improve my English vocabulary so that I can score well on international tests like GRE, GMAT, IELTS, USMLE etc, and try to get good internships within Pakistan to get valuable experience. If you do well on these items, you can be assured of admission in  a top notch international university for higher studies / specialization and then use that degree as a launching pad for your international career.

If you have any question regarding ranking of Pakistani universities in the world you can ask here in the discuss section below and I ll try to answer it as soon as possible.

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