ISLAMABAD: Six Pakistan institutes of higher education are ranked among the world's top 800 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British ranking agency.

The Pakistani varsities that made it to the QS World University Rankings 2015-2016 include the National University of Sciences And Technology (Nust) Islamabad, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums), University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, University of Karachi (KU) and the University of Lahore. Nust was also ranked separately at 340 in the 'Engineering and Technology' category.

The QS rankings take into account academic reputation (40 per cent), employer reputation (10pc), student to faculty ratio (20pc), citations per faculty (20pc), international faculty ratio (5pc) and international students (5pc). The methodology aims to assess research, teaching, employability and internationalisation.

Ranking of Pakistani varsities

• Nust Islamabad: 501-550

• QAU: 651-700

• Lums: 701+

• UET Lahore: 701+

• KU: 701+

• University of Lahore: 701+

The top 10 universities in the world, according to the QS rankings are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, University College London, Imperial College, ETH Zurich and the University of Chicago.