The signing of $46 billion CPEC projects with China in 2015 rejuvenated interest in engineering education in the country. These projects were valued at $62 billion in 2017, with a large number of these yet to be started or completed. It also seems that with the on-going trade war between USA and China, many engineering job opportunities will open up for Pakistani engineering, computing, and technology graduates in the years to come, locally and abroad. These opportunities will mostly be in Electrical and Computer, Mechanical, Civil, Metallurgy, Polymer, Environment, Geological, and Biomedical engineering, as well as in Computer Science and allied disciplines such as data science, big data, and cloud computing.
Before the establishment of the Higher Education of Pakistan (HEC) in 2002, engineering education used to be almost the sole domain of public sector universities in the country. Only a handful universities offered academics degree programs, primarily in Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical engineering. They were University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, UET Peshawar, Dawood UET Karachi, Mehran UET Jamshoro, NED University Karachi, Baluchistan UET Khuzdar, National University of Science & Technology (NUST) Islamabad; previously College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME), Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Science & Technology (GIKI) Topi, UET Taxila, and Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences (PIEAS).
For many decades, UET Lahore remained the institution of choice for engineering education with students from Karachi to Peshawar and Quetta to Gilgit-Baltistan. It also had a fairly large international student body from the Middle East, Africa, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, in addition to the children of expatriate Pakistanis from various countries.
Currently, UET Lahore is the largest of all engineering universities in the country with about 15000 strong student body and around 50000 alumni. It offers 17 engineering programs, from the classical Civil Engineering to one of most contemporary Biomedical Engineering. Mehran UET offers degrees in 15 engineering programs, followed by NUST with 12. According to a recent ranking NUST, PIEAS, and UET Lahore are three top ranked engineering universities in the country. They are followed by GIKI Topi, UET Peshawar, Institute of Space Technology (IST) Islamabad, Air University, Mehran UET Jamshoro, NED UET Karachi, and UET Taxila.
A study from publicly available data about these universities revealed that among all public sector engineering institutions in Punjab and Islamabad, UET Taxila and UET Lahore offer most affordable undergraduate engineering and technology education. Their per semester tuition fees are Rs. 30000 and Rs. 36000, and total per semester dues are Rs. 42700 and Rs. 44000, respectively.
These semester dues are 50% or less compared to all other top ten public sector engineering institutions in the province and federal capital. The per semester dues for the remaining top 10 engineering universities are: NUST Rs. 97700 to Rs 112700, PIEAS Rs 94100 to Rs 101000, IST Rs 90000, and Air University Rs 85680 (Rs 110680 for final semester).
The per semester dues for engineering degree programs at other, non-top-ten public sector engineering and technology universities are: COMSATS Rs 102000 to Rs 104500, Bahria University Rs 91000 to 101500 (Rs 101000 to Rs 111500 for final semester), Punjab Information Technology University (ITU) Rs 106000, and HiTech University Rs 110000.
The per semester dues for undergraduate engineering and technology degree programs at some of the most well-known private universities are: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Rs 384200, University of Management and Technology (UMT) Rs 187375, Capital University of Science and Technology (CUST) Rs 148500 to Rs 188400, National University FAST Rs 144500, and University of Central Punjab (UCP) Rs 131650.
In spite of being the largest in terms of number of students and number of degree programs offered, UET Lahore has highly qualified PhD faculty with many Fulbright Scholars, excellent student-to-teacher ratio of 16, modern library and internet facilities, and mostly top-notch laboratory facilities. It also has a good gender mix with around 33% female students.
It also offers Outcome Based Education as mandated by Washington Accord, Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) accredited programs, largest range of engineering and technology programs, on-campus summer internship opportunities at various high tech and research labs, strong programs in natural sciences, and a large alumni network of engineers and technologists. It also stands tall in the ranking of engineering universities in the country and is located in the second largest city of the country that is home to a large number engineering and technology companies.
Some of its programs are ranked in the top-500 in the latest QS World Ranking of Universities. For example, its Electrical Engineering program is ranked 351-400 and Mechanical Engineering program is ranked 401-450.
In the final analysis, in terms of “best value for money,” UET Lahore remains at the top in undergraduate engineering education in the province and federal capital.