KARACHI: The global university ranking body QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) has released its 2026 world university rankings.
According to the list, Quaid-e-Azam University was ranked 354th, while the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) was placed among the top 371 universities. However, no university from Pakistan could secure a place among the top 350 universities in the world.
The country’s largest university, the University of Karachi, managed to secure a spot in the top 1,001, but no other university from Sindh made it to the top 1,500.
Among the top 10 universities globally, MIT (USA) ranked first, followed by Imperial College London (UK) in second place, Stanford University (USA) in third, University of Oxford (UK) in fourth, and Harvard University (USA) in fifth.
Others in the top 10 include Cambridge University (UK), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), National University of Singapore, UCL London (UK), and California Institute of Technology (USA).
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Other Pakistani universities featured in the rankings include:
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Punjab University at 542
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Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) at 555
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University of Agriculture, Faisalabad at 654
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COMSATS University, Islamabad at 664
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Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences at 721
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UET Lahore at 801
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University of Peshawar at 901
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Lahore University at 951
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Aga Khan University and University of Karachi at 1,001
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Bahauddin Zakariya University, International Islamic University, Riphah International University, and University of Management and Technology at 1,201
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Islamia University of Bahawalpur at 1,401.
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The QS organisation is also planning to release the 2026 South Asian university rankings by the end of this year or in January next year.
In the 2025 South Asian rankings, the University of Karachi was placed at 58th, Aga Khan University at 62nd, and IBA Karachi at 70th. Other universities included were:
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Iqra University (110th)
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IBA Sukkur (120th)
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NED University (131st)
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Dow University of Health Sciences (140th)
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Mehran University of Engineering, Jamshoro (168th)
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Ziauddin University (240th)
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Sindh University, Jamshoro (263rd)
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University of Balochistan (278th).
