ISLAMABAD: The National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad has been included in the top 500 world universities’ list, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2018 released on Thursday. According to the QS World University Rankings 2018 list, only six universities from Pakistan are among the top 1000 universities from around the world. NUST Islamabad is at 431st place among the top 500 universities. Last year, it was at 501. The rankings revealed that the country’s best research institution Quid-e-Azam University (QAU) stood at second number among the six others domestic universities. It was followed by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Beside the above three universities, the rankings included University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, the University of Karachi and the University of Lahore. All of three remained between indicators of 800 to 1000 in the QS World University Rankings 2018. The ranking revealed that like previous years, the leading US and UK universities had retained their top positions. Among the top 200 universities, six are from India, 15 from China, two from Iran, 11 from Turkey, three from Singapore, four from Israel, three from Saudi Arabia, five from Malaysia, six from Lebanon, three from Lebanon and six from Hong Kong. Thirty-three countries featured in the Top 200. The US dominated with 48 institutions, ahead of the UK with 30, Netherlands 12, Germany 11, Canada 9, Australia 9, Japan 8, China 7, France, Sweden and Hong Kong 5. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) secured the top position, followed by Stanford University and Harvard University on the second and third places respectively in the QS world University Rankings 2018. These top institutions have been at the top for the past many years. The QS World University Rankings have been published annually since 2013. It provides an overview of the world’s leading higher education institutions. During course of assessment for rankings of the universities, it uses six performance indicators included academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), international students (5%), and international faculty (5%). According to the compiled rankings, it has featured 916 universities in 81 countries of the world following an assessment of more than 3,800 institutions. About 74,651 academics and 37,781 employers’ responses contributed towards the results, making both surveys the largest of their kind in the world. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan also followed the QS World University Rankings’ mechanism for its own ranking of the local universities. The QAU, which is at the third place among top Pakistani universities in QS World University Rankings 2018, was at the top position in local rankings by HEC Pakistan. The University of Punjab, which is not featured in the QS World University Rankings 2018, had been placed on the second number in the HEC university rankings. The QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings 2016 had ranked the Pakistani higher education system at the bottom with a score of 9.2. China had a score of 83.5, South Korea 80.1, Singapore 62.3, India 60.9, Chile 46.7, Saudi Arabia 36.7, Turkey 26.1, Kazakhstan 25.1, Lebanon 19.8, Ukraine 16.6, United Arab Emirates 10.9 scores. Surprisingly, Pakistan was even ranked behind Estonia.