Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD,:Five disciplines of the International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI), have shown an improved Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking in 2024-2025, according to the latest information released in the QS Subject Rankings for 2024-2025 here Monday.
These disciplines include Computer Science (501-600), Physical Sciences (501-600), Business and Economics (601-800), Engineering (601-800), and Social Science (801-1000). Notably, IIUI had previously been ranked in Theology, Divinity, and Religious Studies (51-100), Mathematics (351-400), and Physics & Astronomy (601-640) within the QS subject ranking system, said a press release on Monday.
While IIUI has sustained its 2024 ranking in these domains, additional fields have also made their debut in the 2025 rankings.This growing presence of the IIUI’s disciplines in the QS rankings reflects the dedication of the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Development (QAD), led by Professor Dr. Rahmat Ellahi, as well as the strategic vision and timely initiatives spearheaded by the Vice President of Research and Enterprise, Engr. Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed.
As a consequence, the IIUI achieved a QS regional ranking of 51 in South Asia and 243 in Asia.
The QS rankings serve as a global metric that determines the standing of universities worldwide based on diverse criteria.
These rankings assess academic reputation (40 percent), employer reputation (10 percent), faculty/student ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio (5 percent), and international student ratio (5 percent), thereby reflecting a university’s academic excellence, research impact, teaching capacity, and global diversity.
The primary goal behind these rankings is to promote transparency, facilitate informed decision-making for students and faculty, and encourage universities to engage in healthy global competition by adhering to international standards in various domains of knowledge production.
Moreover, the rankings bring universities from lesser-known regions into the global spotlight, fostering diverse scholarly activities and intellectual development.
Given their importance, students worldwide increasingly base their university choices on QS rankings, highlighting their influence on the socio-economic standing of institutions.
In alignment with these global benchmarks, IIUI prioritized improving its rankings within the recently approved Strategic Plan which was initiated in 2020 when the Vice President of Research and Enterprise assigned the task to the Director of QAD to ensure the involvement of all IIUI tiers in the data collection process.
Although this presented challenges—particularly in the early years, with the growing number of students and the complexities of data gathering and verification—IIUI’s ranking team successfully overcame these obstacles to present a clearer picture of its global intellectual contributions.
With the establishment of robust data-sufficient platforms, IIUI’s visibility in global rankings has grown in recent years, spanning multiple global rankings including Green Metrics, Sustainable Development Goals, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS subject rankings, and QS regional rankings.
The legacy data of IIUI highlights its longstanding contributions to various academic disciplines, earning global recognition and laying the groundwork for expanding excellence in additional fields.
This legacy not only strengthens the IIUI’s academic reputation but also forms the foundation for its emerging strengths, as seen in the growing global presence of Computer Science, Physical Sciences, Business and Economics, Engineering, and Social Sciences. By building on its historical strengths, IIUI continues to solidify its position as a key global academic contributor.
While these achievements mark significant progress, there are still areas that require attention, particularly research impact, international collaborations, and data standardization.
The IIUI remains committed to addressing these challenges with a continuous focus on improvement.
As part of this effort, the university will continue to align its academic policies with international ranking criteria and the HEC guidelines to ensure it addresses any weaknesses and strives to surpass them in the future.
