Why universities in Bangladesh have poor global rankings

The just published flagship Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2026 has marked a new dimension to the educational excellence. There is a clear shift in knowledge creation and research in favour of Asia. It must, however, be acknowledged that the established old bastions or powerhouses in the United States of America and the United Kingdom have retained their premier positions in the ranking and a larger number of US higher seats of learning have improved their positions. But it is the largest number of East Asian universities that have gatecrashed not only into the elite club of top 50 but also into the grade between 100 and 500. 

The island nation Singapore's the National University of Singapore claimed the 8th position, retaining its place in the elite club of 10 for the third year in a row and the Nanyang Technological University follows close by claiming the 12thspot. Percentagewise Chinese institutions have to their credit a 45 per cent rise but the Malaysian higher seats of learning gained a phenomenal ascendancy with 32 of that country making further progress at the rate of 70 per cent improvement -- the highest rate of improvement among countries with 10 or more universities. To its credit, Hong Kong boasts placement of nine universities in the ranking but remarkably with five within the top100world universities -- highest in Asia and second highest globally. South Korea and Australia found their universities slide down the ladder.

The transition of indigenous scientific and technological knowledge courtesy of infrastructure development and investment along with collaborative research work towards Asia is quite evident. Interestingly, Asia now leads the pack with 565 ranked universities compared with Europe's 487 and Americas' 358. Africa and Oceania hold 47 and 44 spots respectively. The majority of newcomers are also from Asia with 84 institutions compared to 10 American, nine European, eight African and one Oceanian. In another ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE), 22 Asian universities earned their places among the 50 of the world's best. 

This latest edition of the QS World University Rankings covers 1,500+ higher seats of learning across 106 locations all across the world. What is particularly significant is that among the ranked institutions, apart from those banded in categories, the US has the highest number with 192, followed by the UK with 90 and mainland China with 72. India surges ahead of Germany with 54 to the latter's 48 to complete the round of top five. However, IIT Delhi tops the list with its 123rd global ranking, overtaking IIT Mumbai ranked 129th. 

It is exactly at this point, the rankings of the universities in Bangladesh cut a sorry picture. The country's premier higher seat of learning the University of Dhaka (DU) still holds the prime position at 584th global position but has slid 30 notches below last year's 554th position. Other universities including the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), second to the DU, has been placed in the band of 761-770. The rest stay far behind. Pakistan have two entries higher than the 400 mark with Quaid-e-Azam University earning the 354 spot and the National University of Science and Technology achieving the 371 slot. Even the University of the Punjab and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) stay ahead of DU.

Again, one Kazakhstan university is ranked as high as 166 and two other claim 317 and 331 slots respectively. What a pleasant surprise that the University of Brunei Darussalam has earned a respectable 367 place. Universities from some Middle East countries and Indonesia have also advanced in their ranking with Saudi Arabia's the King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) claiming the 67th position -- the first Arabian university to earn a place among the top 100 globally. This analysis hardly makes the DU's position enviable, least of those of other universities Bangladesh take pride in.  

This certainly is a cause for serious concern. Bangladesh imports technologies about a decade's back. Unless it establishes its indigenous research base with many times more investment with collaboration between and among academia, corporate sector and industries, its educational excellence will continue to elude. If the money poured into irrelevant projects and laundered abroad were used for this purpose, it would make a perceptible difference in this area. 

Now the criteria on which the ranking of universities are made may shed light on the backwardness of the Bangladesh universities. The QS rankings use eight clear-cut metrics: 1) academic reputation; 2) employer reputation; 3) citations per faculty; 4) faculty/student ratio; 5) international student ratio; 6) international faculty ratio; 7) sustainability and 8) the newly introduced student diversity (ISD). However, to decide the scores for such metrics, the QS employs lenses and indicators enough to present a representative picture if not a hundred per cent accurate one. 

The academic reputation is measured through the lens of research and discovery, employability and outcomes, learning experience, global engagement, career placement and career progression and so on. Clearly, universities in Bangladesh lack in all such key criteria and therefore wallow far below not only the leading global universities but even their counterparts in South Asia and the Asian region in general. To make an environment for academic excellence for the public universities in particular, the adversarial student politics and partisan recruitment of teachers have to be done away with forthwith. Adequate investment in research facilities and collaboration with foreign universities will definitely create the right ambience for charting a course towards excellence in higher education.

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com