MARDAN: The Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) has been ranked 150th by the Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings 2021.

“The Times Higher Education (THE) on Wednesday announced the result of its Emerging Economies ranking, which includes institutions in countries or regions classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as ‘advanced emerging’, ‘secondary emerging’ or ‘frontier’,” Vice-Chancellor Prof Zahoorul Haq told Dawn.

He said the ranking demonstrated the growing strength of secondary emerging countries, heavily driven by Pakistan, China, and Russia, adding a record 606 universities were ranked this year from 48 countries and regions, 14 per cent more than in 2020 (533), as 86 universities, including AWKUM, made their debut.

“It is a positive sign that Pakistan is making significant gains from the secondary emerging markets. About 77pc of universities (10 out of 13) from Pakistan improved or maintained their previous rankings,” he said.

Mr Haq pointed out China grabbed the top five positions while only two universities from Pakistan made their way to top 150 universities worldwide.

Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad secured the 105th position and AWKUM, an 11-year-old university and competing for the first time, went straight to the 150th position,” he claimed.

“Based on our research we are ranked 200th in the world citation ranking. The university is also ranked 24th in Asia and 3rd in South Asia,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2021