THIS is apropos the article ‘The academic rankings racket’ (Dec 12). While I will not disagree with most of what the article stated, the remarks regarding Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) seemed prejudiced, loaded with abhorrence, and need to be refuted. Instead of appreciating the university, younger than most others in the country, for its remarkably outstanding performance, belittling it with such words was unwarranted and uncalled-for.

Detailing the lynching of Mashal Khan by a mob of his fellow students, the write-up proclaimed that AWKUM is “top-most for violent intolerance”. One wonders how the incident, whose nature is rooted in and driven by predominantly societal intolerance and deep distrust of the law – the lynching of two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb Butt, on Aug 15, 2010, in Sialkot is a case in point – and which has nothing to do with teaching and research, can describe the image of the university?

There have been clashes between student organisations or groups based on ethnicities in other universities, reflecting intolerance among students. Attributing such incidents, however, to the universities themselves will be unjust and inappropriate.

For instance, a clash among some ethnic groups of students took place at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in November 2018, leaving scores of students injured. Does that imply that the QAU is the ‘top-most for violent intolerance’? Obviously, such clashes have nothing to do with the research and teaching of the university.

Arguing that AWKUM is unknown for research and teaching is untrue; flatly and blatantly. One can rightly question what makes a university ‘known for research and teaching’ but the role of ranking agencies, such as Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings, in terms of teaching and research have been disputed by the said article.

If these ranking agencies are not credible, what other criterion establishes a university as being ‘known for teaching and research’?

The first position of AWKUM in THE rankings has taken the breath of many away and others in the academic circles. In fact, AWKUM had applied for the first time for THE rankings. Is the ranking dubious and not trustworthy? Had it been of no worth, the University of Oxford, UK, for instance, would not have taken pride in it and displayed on its website as Oxford University has topped the THE World University Rankings for a fifth consecutive year. Prestigious universities across the globe legitimately celebrate their positions in such rankings.

Having said that, why AWKUM has been driven off in QS rankings is a valid question. On inquiring, the university administration revealed that it missed the deadline for submitting the application to the ranking agency.

Furthermore, it is trivial that universities’ positions are reshuffled as the parameters used by QS rankings are different from those of THE, while those shared by both systems carry different weight. Thus different positions of universities in different ranking systems are not incomprehensible.

Shaukat Ali Khattak
AWKU, Mardan

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021