ISLAMABAD: Instead of increasing, the number of Pakistani universities in international ranking (top 1,000) decreased from seven to four, revealed in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings in its 14th annual edition of rankings for this year released on Wednesday. THE is the leading provider of higher education data for the world’s research-led institutions and it conducts university rankings for its clients, individuals or countries. University of Oxford retained the top spot in the rankings, followed by the University of Cambridge, the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University, the last two jointly occupying the third spot. As per the rankings, the four Pakistani universities placed in world rankings are Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) Islamabad, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Three universities omitted from the current year’s rankings were part of last year’s rankings. These are the University of Karachi, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, and University of Lahore. As per the findings of a report compiled by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on the direction of the president of Pakistan, the QAU has a severe crisis of good management. However, it improved its position in the university rankings as it shifted to 401-500 cohort from 601-800 in last year’s ranking. The CIIT, which found itself the company of Comenius University of Bratislava and Coventry University in the UK, was down 16 spots and stood at 642nd position as compared to last year’s 626th ranking last year. The NUST was on 721 last year, but this year it declined by four bands and was placed at 726th ranking. The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, was the only institute that maintained its position in the rankings among listed universities of Pakistan. It stood among the group of 801 this year, while it was placed in the same position in last year’s ranking. In the region, China had a whopping number of 60 universities among the top 1,000 varsities, including seven in the top 300 and two in the top 100 position. Among other countries in the region, Pakistan stood in the worse position. There are 188 public and private sector universities in the country, of which only four got ranked among the top 1,000 universities as compared to 30 from India, 60 from China, 14 from Iran, 16 from Turkey, five from Saudi Arabia, eight from Malaysia, 71 from Japan, 27 from South Korea, 20 from Taiwan and six from Hong Kong. Neighbouring India became the strongest South Asian nation in the region with effective representation of 30 higher education institutes. The educationists expressed serious concern over the decline in the number of varsities of Pakistan in the list. Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) President Dr Kaleem told Daily Times that it was very regretful that instead of improving, Pakistan declined in ranking as compare to previous years. He said that most of the varsities were dependent on HEC and the federal government for policymaking and obtaining funds. “How could a university function independently if it faces such kind of interference it the system?” Dr Kaleem said that lack of conducive and academic friendly environment in the country’s universities was one of most basic reasons for failure to obtain some significant position in the world ranking. In a press release, Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the QAU stated that despite severe funding constraints, delay in approval of development plans and challenges to its very existence by occupants operating in the culture of a land mafia group, the QAU had time and again demonstrated its ability to compete against far-better-funded national, regional, and international universities. Published in Daily Times, September 7th 2017.