QS Asia rankings: NUST second in Southern Asia

The QS Asia rankings for 2027 include 90 Pakistani universities, with NUST placing second among institutions in Southern Asia.

Quacquarelli Symonds published the latest table this week. Filtering the official website by Pakistan returns 90 institutions, which confirms a wide Pakistani presence in the Asian list.

Pakistan’s place in the QS Asia rankings

NUST leads the Pakistani institutions, ahead of Quaid-i-Azam University and LUMS. COMSATS University Islamabad and the University of the Punjab also sit among the five highest-ranked.

In the Southern Asia subregion, NUST took second place, behind IIT Delhi. Quaid-i-Azam University took tenth place, making it Pakistan’s second entry in that top ten.

As a result, Pakistan holds two of the ten spots. The group also takes in the Maldives, Iran, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and India, alongside Pakistan.

Who tops Asia

The University of Hong Kong kept its place as Asia’s highest-ranked university. Peking University took the second spot, and Tsinghua University rose from ninth place to third.

City University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong completed the top five.

How QS scores universities

QS rates universities on academic reputation, employer reputation, research output, teaching resources and global links. In all, it uses 11 indicators.

Academic reputation carries the biggest weight, at 30 percent, and employer reputation follows at 20 percent. Three measures, the faculty-student ratio, the research network abroad and citations per paper, carry 10 percent each.

Research output per teacher and the share of staff holding doctorates each count for 5 percent. International faculty, international students and exchange programmes make up the rest, another 10 percent.

In short, the QS Asia rankings reward research as well as reputation.

Higher education push in Pakistan

Separate figures show wider progress. The HEC told a standing committee that 18 Pakistani universities appear in the QS World University Rankings 2027, up from seven in 2020.

Across all QS tables, Pakistan’s count grew from 29 universities in 2020 to 83 in 2026. Two now sit among the world’s top 500, and 22 rank in the top 1,000.

HEC chairman Dr Niaz Ahmed Akhtar said the aim is lasting quality, not just better numbers. He named budget limits and weak international recognition as major hurdles.

Meanwhile, the commission set up a committee to explain the ranking method and to find weak areas. It also formed 20 task forces on reforms and plans to add AI and computing education to curricula.

It announced free AI training for faculty too. Scholarship schemes, including the Pak-US Knowledge Corridor and the Fulbright programme, continue to offer chances abroad.

How to check the QS Asia rankings

The full table is on the QS website. Readers can find the list on the Asia rankings page of the QS website. Users pick the 2027 edition, then narrow the list by country.

The site also offers a Southern Asia table, so readers can compare Pakistani institutions with those in neighbouring countries.

For now, the QS Asia rankings 2027 give Pakistani universities a wider footprint, while the commission works on quality.