By Mahnoor Sheikh
Islamabad — NUST has become the only Pakistani university to feature on the Times Higher Education list of top universities from emerging economies worldwide.
The universities included in the British magazine’s list belong to developing countries as well as the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
NUST is 95 on the list of the 100 universities, with an overall score of 22.8. Peking University of China topped the list with 67.7 points.
NUST students and faculty responded positively to the news about the university’s accomplishment.
“The emphasis on merit for hiring faculty and inducting students is an integral part of this success,” Najma Sadiq, the head of department at NUST’s department of mass communication, said.
“For me, as a student of NUST, it’s a proud moment,” said Zain Zia, an undergraduate student of public administration. “I’m shocked, but proud because, well, there are many other universities in Pakistan that could have been there, like LUMS, which a lot of people prefer over NUST at any time any day, but Times chose NUST.”
While some NUST students described NUST’s inclusion in the list as being unexpected, others said the recognition is fully deserved.
“I think we truly deserved this honour of being part of the list because I think NUST faculty and students both have been striving hard to be the best of the best,” said Fatiqa Nadeem, a software engineering student at NUST.
Nadeem said NUST students get more academic and co-curricular opportunities to polish their skills compared to other universities in Pakistan.
Pakistan Ink also reached out to foreign students and overseas Pakistanis to get their reaction on NUST’s achievement.
“It shows that there is much more to Pakistan than what you hear on the news,” Julian Barazi, a German student at Sciences Po in France, said.
Anoud Al-Hakami, a Saudi national who is a student of medicine, said it is rare that a university from a Muslim country made it to an international list because a “lot of people underestimate their education and teaching.”
The Times ranking also included two universities from the United Arab Emirates and one university from Malaysia, both Muslim countries. Turkey and India, both secular states with sizeable Muslim populations, have several universities on the list.
Mohsin Hassan, a Pakistani expat working in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, said it is a great achievement.
“It is a global message to overseas Pakistani communities that we have a one-of-a-kind institution in our homeland,” Hassan said.
The Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2015 was funded by Thomson Reuters, a multinational mass media and information firm.
The 2015 list is the second edition of the Times emerging economies university rankings. The first list was published in 2014, but no Pakistani university made it to the list on that occasion.
The methodology of the rankings is the same as the World University Rankings published by Times annually. The methodology includes 13 “carefully calibrated performance indicators” grouped into areas of teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.
Pakistani universities failed to reach the top 400 list for the 2014-15 World University Rankings issued by Times Higher Education.
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