Pakistan has the world’s weakest higher education system while US and UK have the strongest.
Pakistan has been ranked 50, with an overall score of 9.2 by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British ranking agency. Despite the government’s claims to have invested billions in the country’s education system, Pakistan secured the lowest ranking of the fifty countries included in the list.
The United States received the top spot on the table with an overall score off 100 points, followed by the United Kingdom (98.5 points). While, India was ranked 24 with 60.9 points.
The QS higher education system strength rankings is divided into four categories: system strength, access, flagship institution and economic context.
Countries with the best higher education systems:
United States – 100
United Kingdom – 98.5
Germany – 94
Australia – 92.6
Canada – 90.2
France – 89
Netherlands – 84.8
China – 83.5
South Korea – 80.1
Japan – 78.5
System Strength
The category assesses ‘overall national system strength’, based on how many of the country’s universities are featured in international rankings.
“Each country is awarded a score based on the number of its institutions which are ranked 700 or above in the QS World University Rankings®, divided by the average position of those institutions. The aim is to give an overall indication of each country’s standing in the global ranking tables,” the website stated.
Access
Varsities under this category are ranked according to the number of places available at internationally ranked universities.
Flagship instituition
The ‘flagship’ category assesses the performance of the country’s leading institution within global rankings.
“This is a normalised score, based on the place each nation’s top university occupies in the QS World University Rankings.”
Economic context
The economic context takes into account the impact of “national investment in higher education, by comparing each nation’s financial situation to its performance in the international rankings.”
Taking all four categories into consideration, Pakistan has been ranked at the bottom of the table as compared to Canada 5, France 6, China 8, Saudi Arabia 36 and Turkey 39 among several other countries.
