No Pakistani University Enters World’s Top 350 in QS Rankings 2027

The latest QS World University Rankings 2027 released by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has once again highlighted the ongoing challenges faced by Pakistan’s higher education system, as no university from the country has managed to secure a place among the world’s top 350 institutions.

The global rankings released show minimal gains in Pakistan’s international academic competitiveness with the top universities either losing their ranks or staying stagnant.

This year, the country’s two top federal universities, NUST (National University of Sciences and Technology) and Quaid-i-Azam, fell in the international rankings. Quaid-i-Azam University, which previously ranked 354, has fallen to 381, while NUST dropped from 371 to 384.

The good news is that among the small gains, the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) improved significantly from 721 to 560. Likewise, University of Agriculture Faisalabad has raised its ranking from 654 to 629, while COMSATS University Islamabad has also seen a slight improvement from 664 to 639.

Others, however, saw their international position slip. The University of the Punjab has decreased from 542 to 588, and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has fallen from 555 to 608. University of Engineering and Technology Lahore ranked at 791, facing ongoing difficulties to retain its position in the worldwide competition.

Other Pakistani universities with limited international research impact and visibility are Aga Khan University, University of Karachi, Bahauddin Zakariya University, University of Peshawar, University of Lahore, International Islamic University Islamabad and The Islamia University of Bahawalpur.

The disparity is more pronounced at the regional level where only one institution from Sindh, the University of Karachi, has made it to the Top 1500 list in the global rankings, compared to zero institutions from Balochistan.

Internationally, the top institutions are still from the USA and UK. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ranked number one, with Imperial College London and Stanford University tied in second place. The University of Oxford came in fourth, Harvard University fifth and the University of Cambridge sixth, confirming the long-standing dominance of Western universities in the international higher education rankings.

In all, the QS World University Rankings 2027 lists over 1,500 universities across the globe with only 18 Pakistani universities being present in the world list, indicating the long-standing challenges in research output, funding and global academic collaboration.

The new rankings come after a number of similar concerns have raised about Pakistan’s global competitiveness in higher education, which has been continuously improving among regional peers.