Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Sunday, December 20, 2020
Friday, December 18, 2020
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
#Bilawal's meeting with #ShehbazSharif will create resentment among both...
Friday, December 11, 2020
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
What #PDM and #PTIgovernment gained and lost from #Multan rally handling?
Friday, December 4, 2020
Friday, November 27, 2020
#AseefaBhutto will outclass #MaryamNawaz at Multan PDM rally?
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Shutting #schools across the country is wrong. How? This video will give...
I reject the idea of sweeping closure of schools. How? Please watch the video.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Monday, November 9, 2020
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Govt and opposition both make #COVID a political issue. And why price co...
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Why Matiullah Jan forgets to ask Bashir Memon these questions?
The two-part interview,
uploaded on Matiullah Jan’s website – MJTV – on October 6 and 7 have gone viral attracting
mainstream media attention because of the shocking revelations by the controversial officer of the FIA.
Matiullah Janis a fierce
name in investigative journalism. He used to give a tough time in his talk shows
when he worked with Dawn News and Waqt News. He would often touch the untouched
topics of the affairs of judges, media persons and lawyers.
Recently, he was in
trouble because of his tweet about judges, to which the Supreme Court summoned
him. A day before his appearance to the Supreme Court, he was picked up by some
unidentified people outside a school where his wife works in Islamabad.
I watched the interview,
and enjoyed it.
During the interview, Matiullah
Janunusually gives cues to the former FIA boss to name the prime minister
regarding the political victimization of the opposition.
MrMemon claimed he was
summoned to the highest office to take action against PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz
for his social media’s cell role in leaking the pictures of First Lady Bushra
Imran on social media. He says he refused to take action on the illegal orders
of the prime minister. MatiullahJan, however, did not ask MrMemon that none of
his predecessors did take such action, which means the prime minister might be
just seeking his opinion on the issue.
MrMemon resigned from
his post days ahead of his retirement date, what he says, in protest. In his
resignation letter to the Establishment Division secretary, he wrote that “it is
against etiquettes to transfer a government official, who is about to retire”.
“Transferring a few days before retirement means that the government is not
happy with me. I resign from the job in view of the government's decision,” he
added.
MrMatiullahJan
conveniently forgot to ask that the government is run through rules, not norms
or etiquettes.
He might have leaked his resignation letter to the media too only to malign the
government of the day. His interview to MatiullahJan is the part of his
campaign, said a PTI leader.
In his interview, he painted the
PML-N leaders – Khawaja Asif and ShahidKhaqanAbbasi – innocent, if no saint. He,
however, took action against PPP leader Asif Zardari, FaryalTalpur and others in
money laundering cases, which have yet to be decided. PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari has accused the FIA of torturing his friend HussainLawai, saying
that “he is an 80-year-old man, a respectful banker.
He was picked up and tortured. We condemn this".
Perhaps, MatiullahJan
did not know about the controversial past of MrMemon.
The well-informed journalist also
asked MrMemon why his brother chose to contest the 2018 elections on the
establishment-backed Grand Democratic Alliance.
When Memon was heading the FIA, it
was a horrible time for free speech, and free use of cyberspace to express
dissent.
Under MrMemon, the FIA Cybercrime Wing initiated inquiries against certain
journalists and parties for "a targeted social media campaign" against
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman during his February visit to Pakistan.
A list issued by the FIA
then had the following name: These include:
Matiullah Jan
MurtazaSolangi
Azaz Syed
Ammar Masood
Umer Cheema
Ahmed WaqasGoraya
Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen
Imamia Students Organization
HizbulTahrir Pak
Tameer-i-Watan Party
Several journalists moved the court
against the FIA, then headed by MrMemon, for the exercise of power, abuse of
authority, violation of fundamental rights – especially
freedom of expression – and due process of law, in connection with the
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
Similarly, the FIA used draconian PECA at will in 2017 and 2018. The
agency conducted 2,295 inquiries, registered 255 cases and made 209 arrests in
2018; in 2017, it conducted 1,290 inquiries, registered 207 cases, and arrested
160 people.
In the coming time, this piece of
journalism should be taught to the students of journalism as a graphic example
of ‘propaganda’, ‘set-up interviews’, agenda-driven interviews’ and ‘selective
journalism’.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Sunday, September 27, 2020
The
story of the most trusted man of the Sharif House
Who is Hanif Khan?
He
is not a member of the Sharif House by blood but by his dedication, loyalty,
hard work and commitment demonstrated in three decades, Hanif Khan has earned
the trust of his masters. His role in the family has largely been apolitical
but Hanif Khan was often seen standing behind Maryam Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz
during their political speeches in Lahore and Islamabad in 2017 and 2018 and
later in London.
In
the 80s, Hanif Khan got a job in the Aitchison College as a lab assistant. His
polite manners and good conduct would make the students a fan of him. But Hanif
Khan was a bit choosy in selecting his fans. Though he would take care of all
the students, Hanif Khan would always pay special attention to the sons of then
chief minister Nawaz Sharif – Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz. Most of the time,
he would go extra miles to please them. The brothers loved to fly
remote-controlled airplanes and Hanif Khan being in charge of the airplane
collection allowed the Nawaz brothers to do whatever they wanted to do.
Those
days, Hanif Khan would live in a small residential quarters on the college
premises.
When
the brothers graduated from the college, Hanif Khan remained in touch with
them. After completing education, when Hussain Nawaz started working on their
Sharif Medical City, he employed Hanif Khan there. He would work there part
time in the evening. By that time, he had built his own house in a college’s
residential colony. Soon, Hanif Khan was made the estate officer of the Sharif
family’s properties at Jati Umra.
His
tenure as the estate officer ended in the 2000s, when the Sharif family opted
to go for exile after a bargain with the Musharraf regime. Those were the times
when Hanif Khan faced devastating financial problems. Those days, he did several
part time jobs in the evening from record keeper to typist for traders on
Nisbat Road. A few people who worked with Hanif Khan those days tell how upset
he was and how badly he missed his masters. He had been tasked by the Sharif
family to look after the huge estate in their absence.
“The
family departed in a hurry, perhaps on a one-way ticket,” tells a source on the
condition of anonymity, citing Hanif Khan.
Soon,
the Sharif family started missing Hanif Khan in Jeddah, so he was called there.
When the family moved to London from Jeddah, Hanif Khan found his ticket booked
too.
When
the family returned to Pakistan in 2008, Hanif Khan came back too. When the
PML-N government was in power in Punjab from 2008-13 and later on in the center
from 2013 to 2018, Hanif Khan often helped his old colleagues of Nisbat Road
and Aitchison College in resolving their issues. Some people say that during
this period, the honest and dedicated Hanif Khan also became a millionaire, if
not billionaire. A few people said that Hanif Khan invested in real estate. But
no one has any explicit proof of any wrongdoing of Hanif Khan.
In
2017, when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified in the wake of the Panama Leaks, and
Hussain Nawaz and Maryam Nawaz started addressing the media people, Hanif Khan
for the first time appeared on the media. He guarded their master standing
behind them and listened to their talks without any emotions.
Nowadays,
Hanif Khan is in London and his place of duty is Avenfield.
His
colleagues say hanif Khan used to be a jolly, lively and kind-hearted man
during his youth. Now, he looks depressed and lost.
Maybe,
this is because of his age.
Maybe,
he is upset about the circumstances of his masters.
Maybe, he knows that his masters’
hands are not so clean. If so, Hanif Khan should come forward and share details
with the government.
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Monday, September 14, 2020
Early days of Shahid Khan – one of the richest Pakistani-Americans – in Lahore
Back in 1966-67, Shahid Khan was an avid bike rider and a teenage boy trying to arrange Rs1,200 to reach the US.
He would ask his friend
Khawar Baloch, who was also a motorcycle racer, for the money.
Most of us only know that
the 66th richest man in the United States in 2020 is
Pakistani-American Shahid Khan. Several people also know that Shahid Khan’s net
worth is $7.6 billion. It has also been reported several times that when
immigrated to the US from Lahore at age 16 in 1968, he had only $500. The
Forbes published the list of US richest people in 2020, and of them Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is number one for the
third year in a row, followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates at number two.
This piece sheds light on
the early life of Shahid Khan in Lahore, who now owns NFL’s Jacksonville
Jaguars, which he bought in 2012, UK’s Fulham football club, which he bought in
2013 and Black News Channel, a 24-hour cable news channel, which he launched in
February 2020.
I wrote a piece in Dawn
newspaper in 2012 titled Lahore-born
entrepreneur among US richest people. Then, Shahid Khan, the owner of auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate and
the Jacksonville Jaguars, ranked 179th on the Forbes 400 with an estimated net
worth of $2.5 billion. In 2020, he has improved his fortune to $7.6bn and has
gone up the ladder to the 66th.
My interest in Shahid Khan
developed after I read about him in News-Press, a Gannet newspaper being
published in Fort Myers, Florida, where I worked during a US-Pakistan
Journalists Exchange Programme in 2011. The newspaper mentioned his name for he
is a resident of this scenic neighbourhood Naples, Florida. After its
publication, Khawar Baloch, a childhood buddy of Shahid Khan, contacted me and
shared certain details about the billionaire sports buff.
“I met Shahid Khan in 1966
when our family lived in Krishan Nagar, while Shahid Khan’s father house was in
Gulberg’s P block. His father’s name was Rafique Khan, and their old Gulberg
house still holds nameplate of Rafique Khan. Rafique Khan was the veteran of
multiple marriages.
“His mother was a
mathematics teacher in then Government College for Women (now the Government
College for Women’s University), while his father had a shop of survey and
drawing accessories in Anarkali. The shop is still intact and his cousin is
running the shop. Shahid Khan had another brother – Tariq Rafique Khan. He
matriculated from the Aligarh Public School. He died when he was in his early
20s.
“Shahid Khan was four-year
senior to me. He was a student of St. Anthony School on Lawrence Road, while I
studied in Muslim Model High School on Lower Mall. After the school, he would come
to me on his motorbike,” he recalls. Those were the days when a few people had
fuel-powered vehicles in the city.
The 50 CC motorcycle of
Shahid Khan was the German made DKW. It could run on petrol and when fuel dried
up, it could be driven as pedal-driven bicycle.
Mr Khawar had USA-made NSU
motorcycle, 1967-68 model.
Such kind of bikes is now not available.
Shahid Khan and Khawar
Baloch would ride their bikes on Canal Road and other city roads and would chat
for hours.
Khawar remembers several
races which they had those days. One of them was from Jail Road to Jallu on
Canal Road.
“Those days, he used to say
that I want to go to America for studies and for that I need Rs1,200,”
remembers Khawar Baloch.
Considering less inflation
in those times, the sum looked enormous.
“His plans looked odd to me.
America was not a familiar name those days. A foreign journey would be only
undertaken to vilayat, which means England. Pakistan being a former colony of
the British Raj had connections whereas America used to be a foreign name those
days,” Khawar says.
Khawar could not help Shahid
Khan with cash.
One day, Shahid Khan
disappeared. Khawar soon went to college and later on to Canada in 1976. He did
not hear about Shahid Khan until 2010.
In 2012, I wrote in Dawn:
On
the other hand, Shahd Khan moved to the US in 1968 with $500 in his pocket and
a great determination for success in his mind. About
his early days in the US, the magazine quoted Mr khan as saying that he spent
his first night in a $2 per night room at the Champaign YMCA. His first job in
the US was washing dishes for $1.20 an hour. He graduated from the UIUC School
of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with a BSc in 1971.
He proved to be a successful entrepreneur when after his
university education, Mr Khan invented a new truck bumper design that shaved
weight off for fuel efficiency considerations. He never looked back and soon
built his company with his $16,000 saving and a bank loan. Soon he developed
the company into a $3.4 billion manufacturing juggernaut that supplied the
biggest automakers in the world.
Nine months ago, he bought the Jaguars, fulfilling a longtime
dream to own an NFL franchise.
Now, Mr Khan is focusing on giving back to his adopted country. He
donated $10 million in 2011 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Back in Lahore, a very few people are aware of Mr Khan’s place on
the Forbes list of the 400 billionaires.
“I only know that he is a Pakistani and he has purchased a
football team in the US,” said Fawad Asghar, a sports journalist.
According to Muhammad Imran, a business graduate, Mr Khan is a
perfect example of brain drain for Pakistanis, and a proof of American dream.
He said Mr Khan was giving back to the Americans since the US gave him a lot.
“Pakistan offers opportunities to a few; scores of intelligent
people with potential entrepreneur skills on Lahore streets can make to the
Forbes list if they are given a chance,” he said.
“Well done, Shahid Khan,” said Shahid Bhatti, also an auto parts
dealer on Guru Mangat Road.
He said though he too wanted to manufacture fuel efficient
bumpers, the big companies and his financial constraints would never let him
fulfill his dream.
“That’s why I am just called Sheeda. I need a chance to be Shahid
Khan,” he said.
In 2010, Khawar Baloch came
to know about the whereabouts of his childhood friend.
He contacted Shahid Khan’s
cousin in Lahore and got his contact number. He has called hundreds of times,
if not thousands of times, to reach him but to no avail. He called Shahid
Khan’s personal secretary multiple times and she promised to convey about
Khawar’s calls to her boss. She did too but Shahid Khan is too busy to talk.
Khawar Baloch has mailed him multiple times which were never returned. He
reaches every person who has information about Shahid Khan. He contacted me
after he read my piece on Shahid Khan in 2012.
He contacted Aziz Memon,
co-founder of the Rotary Club and member of the Lions Club who has met Shahid
Khan a couple of times to get donations. Mr Memon told him that Shahid Khan is
hesitant to caller from Pakistan. According to him, Shahid Khan donates
$100,000 to 200,000 every year for polio control in Pakistan.
In 2019, Shahid Khan met
Prime Minister Imran Khan in the US and expressed his desire to work on the
improvement of sports infrastructure in the country of his birthplace. But for
the dam fund, when the prime minister asked overseas Pakistan for donation,
Shahid Khan donated just $1,000.
No one knows what Shahid
Khan holds for Pakistan but his childhood buddy Khawar Baloch has fond memories
of him and desire to him in person.
Monday, September 7, 2020
Women journalists speak up against digital abuse with one voice
Enough is enough!
After facing slur and abuse
for years, both online and in person, women journalists have started speaking up,
pointing fingers to trolls those in government quarters, political activists
and social media cells of political parties.
These attacks often in the
form of coordinated campaigns are “increasingly impacting our work, mental
wellbeing and security”, reads an open letter, signed by dozens of women
journalists of Pakistan. The letters explains the nature of attacks, which
include “gender-based and sexualized abuse, discrediting, targeting and
persecution … The kind of trolling and unfettered vulgarity being experienced
subverts every norm of decency with no law enforcement agency, government or
any political party taking notice or action of what is clearly transgressing
all limits of decency and subverting every ethical standard”.
The letter details the
reasons behind these attacks on women in media, which often stem from their reporting
on critical issues which may offend a political party. They come under attack
for differing from the government or a political party’s position on any given
issue. On a few occasions, women journalists’ pictures and videos are made
viral following with gender-based slurs, threats of sexual and physical
violence. In the attacks, these journalists’ family members and colleagues’
families are not spared. In the age of photoshop and software which can doctor
and distort videos, it is easy to make a simple video or photograph dubious.
“In this context, we demand
that we be told what the official mandate of the social media cells of the
federal and provincial governments operating on tax-payers money is. Often, it
seems like the mandate of these social media cells is to discredit journalists
and analysts, without any evidence. We also demand that all other political
parties and institutions ensure verifiable transparency regarding the mandate
and operations of their respective social media wings. The Election Commission
of Pakistan should demand all political parties to submit detailed workings of
their social media cells”, reads the letter.
The women journalists demand
that the government and all political parties draw up and adopt a code of
conduct for social media teams of political parties, public bodies and other public/state
institutions; investigate within to identify networks which have been
prominently engaged in launching and running coordinated attacks, hashtag
campaigns and abusive campaigns against women in the media; initiate
investigation and take action against those officials for whom there is
evidence available that they are directly or indirectly engaged in the
discrediting and harassing women in media; Whenever a journalist lodges a
complaint with Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) or the police regarding
intimidation, threats and other forms of digital abuse, the case(s) should be
processed fairly and efficiently, without any pressure to withdraw or an
environment of victim-blaming; the Cyber Crime Wing at the FIA must set up
dedicated desks to facilitate registration of cases of digital violence against
women; the Journalist Protection Bill should be cognizant of the digital
threats and violence against journalists and facilitate effective
investigations of digital crimes against journalists. All stakeholders and
those involved (as mentioned in para 2) should be made to adhere to a culture
of no tolerance to digital abuse; and finally, we urge the government not to
use this statement as an excuse to introduce further regulations and curbs for
social media. We believe that the PTI, as the ruling party holds primary
responsibility to set the tone for progressive, positive and inclusive
political discourse and should lead by example.
The letter carries
signatures of Nasim Zehra (24 News), Quatrina Hosain (PTV), Seema Tahir (CEO News One), Asma Shirazi (Aaj
News) Meher Bokhari (Dawn News), Maria
Memon (ARY News),
Fereeha Idress (AbbTak News) Gharidah Farooqi (News
One) Tanzeela Mazhar (GTV), Yashfeen Jamal (Qalam-Camera) Javeria
Siddique (TRT), Farhat Rabbani (BBC), Shiffa Yousufzai (HUM News), Madiha Naqvi
(ARY News), Neelum Nawab (DIN News), Sana Bucha (Aaj tv), Nadiya Mirza (PTV News),
Maria Zulfiqar (HUM News), Beenish Saleem (Neo News), Farah Sadia (ATV/Public News) Afshan Qureshi from Daily Jinan, Batul
Rajput, Freelancer, Sadaf Jabbar, ARY
News, Farah Iqrar, Samaa News, Sadaf
Khan, Media Matters Nausheen Yousaf, Geo News Shazia Sikendar, Fmr. PTV Urooj
Raza Siami, Roze TV Aalia Shah, DW Aniqa
Nisar, Capital TV Iffat Rizvi,
Independent & DW Rashida Sial,
AbbTak Zahra Noor Abbas, AbbTak Huma Amir Shah, Geo
News Aneela Khan, Independent Mehr Tarar, AbbTak Alia Jawad, Geo Sports Nabeela Hafiz, VoP Nargis Janjua, Daily Jinan Sadia Kamal, APP Shazia Nayyar, Aap News
Maleeha Hashmi, freelance
Aneela Mehmood Shamim Ashraf Daily Kashmir Shazia Tahir, Freelancer Sabahat Khan, DW Pernia Khan, BBC Irfana
Yasser, BBC Urdu Nadia Suleman, BBC Urdu
Shumaila Jaffery, BBC Nazish Zafar, BBC
Munazza Anwar, BBC Sana Asif Dar, BBC Nadia Murtaza, Dawn News Ambreen Fatima, Nawa e Waqt Sophiya Anjam PTV/FM 91 Beenish Jawed, Online Journalist Ayesha
Shoaib, Neo News Mona Khan,
Independent Ghazala Naureen, AbbTak Zaryab Arif, Hum News Maria Shirazi, The News Int’l Afshan Qureshi,
Daily Jinan Rameeza Ahmad, Freelancer Fatima Nazish, Hum News Sumeera Ali, GNN News Shazia, Express TV Wajiha, Dawn News Rabia
Shahab, Dawn News Asiya Ansar, BBC Urdu
Huda Ikram, BBC Urdu Sarah Hasan, VOA
Ayesha Ehtisham, Neo News Fatima Ali, Independent Urdu Noreen Zahra, Geo News
Sumaira Latif, Geo News Saima Sajjad, Geo News
Zeynep Gürcan, CFWIJ Kiran Nazish, CFWIJ
Lubna Jerar Naqvi, KUJ Samreen Hameed, Geo News Sumeira Khan, Indus News Sanovia Chaudhry,
Geo News Uneeba Zamir Shah, Geo News
Fatima Saleem, Geo News Dilrukshi
Handunnetti (Sri Lanka) Hamna Malik, Voice of Balochistan Laiba Zainab, Sujag Naheed Jahangir,
Tribal News Asma Ali Zain, Arab
News Sana Jamal, Gulf
News Sehrish Khokar, ARY News Madiha Abid Ali, Dunya News Mona Khan, Independent Urdu Sehrish
Lodhi, PTV Diya Rehman, Radio
Pakistan Shafaq Iqbal,
Nawa-e-Waqt Irum Zaeem, Samaa TV Sitara Jabeen, TRT World Moneeba Iftekhar, APP
Riffat Shah, Aap News Tanzeela Rania, Aaj News
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
No Pakistani university in top 500 Times Higher Education
World Rankings 2021
Not a single Pakistani university could be ranked among the first 500 universities in the World University Rankings 2021 released by the Times Higher Education (THE). There are, however, 17 Pakistani varsities in the list of top 2,000 higher education institutions, and of them, the little known Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, beat the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, to grab the first university position in Pakistan, and 510th all over the world, whereas the Quaid-i-Azam University, which was among the top 500 varsities of the world last year, stood at 575th position. On the international scene, the ranking, which underlined the shifting strength of higher education and research around the world, saw the UK’s University of Oxford on the top for the fifth consecutive year. Also, the US domination of the top 10 masked wider decline and mainland China's Tsinghua University became the first ever Asian university to stand out among the top 20.
University
rankings are viewed with a greater interest among the students all over the
world because students try to get admission to varsities which enhance their
employment chances. Among the ranking institutions, THE World University
Rankings are viewed as the most balanced and comprehensive global ranking, with
13 separate performance metrics covering the full range of core activities for
research-intensive universities: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international
outlook. The 2021 ranking examined over 86 million citations across more than
13.6 million research publications and included survey responses from 22,000
scholars globally.
This
year’s Rankings edition has 18 countries and regions in the top 100, and 93
represented overall, demonstrating that geopolitical competition in the global
knowledge economy is intensifying. Moreover, a record 1,527 institutions qualify
for the 2021 edition, a 9% increase from the 2020 rankings when 1,397
institutions qualified.
Coming
back to Pakistan, the universities have been ranked as:
Global Ranking No University
510 Abdul Wali Khan
University Mardan
575 Quaid-i-Azam
University
645 COMSATS
University Islamabad
809 University
of Agriculture, Faisalabad
860 Government
College University Faisalabad
861 Government
College Women University Faisalabad
898 Lahore
University of Management Sciences
919 National
University of Sciences and Technology
939 University
of Peshawar
1951 Bahauddin
Zakariya University
1128 University
of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore
1176 Government
College University Lahore
1207 The
Islamia University of Bahawalpur
1354 PMAS Arid
Agriculture University Rawalpindi
1368 University
of the Punjab
1391 University
of Sargodha
1499 University
of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore
Those
who are looking for some international university for their higher education,
can view the list of top 10 universities of the world.
University Name Country / Region 2021 Rank
University
of Oxford United Kingdom 1
Stanford
University United
States 2
Harvard
University United
States 3
California
Institute of Technology United States 4
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology United States 5
University
of Cambridge United Kingdom 6
University
of California, Berkeley United States 7
Yale
University United States 8
Princeton
University United States 9
University
of Chicago United States 10
The
list shows the US is still the higher education leader even though the UK has
the biggest success story - the University of Oxford. Last year, the UK had top
20 ranked institutions and of them only five were able to improve their
position in the table. Asia is emerging as knowledge power house.
US
also sees the challenge from Asia affecting its performance. Its universities
continue to perform well at the top end of the ranking, commanding the highest number
of positions in the overall top 10 (8) since the rankings began, as the
University of California, Berkeley, climbs 6 places, from joint 13th
to 7th. However, 50% of the US’s top 20 performing universities from
last year’s ranking fail to maintain their position. Over the past five years, the
US has lost 4 positions in the overall top 200 (63 in 2016, 59 in 2021) as
competition rises for the top places.
What
should be the most concerning thing for our education managers is the rise of
educational power of China, Iran and India, our three neighbours.
The
chart speaks volume:
Country No of Universities on
Rankings List
China
90
India
62
Iran
47
Asia’s
rise is fronted by mainland China’s Tsinghua University (joint 20th),
which becomes the first Asian university ever to break into the THE World
University Rankings top 20 since the current methodology launched in 2011. This
achievement is an indicator of the wider positive movements in higher education
for mainland China, and the rest of Asia in recent years. Since 2016, mainland China
has gained 5 additional places in the top 200 (2 in 2016, 7 in 2021). It has
also doubled its representation in the top 100 since last year, gaining 3
additional places (6 in total). Of the 7 universities that achieved a top 200
place in 2020, 85% improved their position in 2021, as mainland China continues
to challenge the world’s very best.
In
total, there are 16 Asian universities in the top 100, the highest total for
Asia since the rankings began. Mainland China’s Fudan University (joint 70th),
Zhejiang University (joint 94th), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (100th,
and South Korea’s Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
(96th), all move into the elite group. Of those 16 institutions, 13
of them either improved or maintained their position from last year, demonstrating
the rising competition from Asia at the expense of western higher education
systems.
Phil
Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE, says:
“We
have observed the rise of Asia in the world rankings for several years now, but
this year marks a major milestone, as mainland China’s Tsinghua University
disrupts the traditional domination of western universities at the top of the
table, breaking into the top 20 for the first time, and as mainland China
doubles its representation in the top 100.
“This
new ranking provides further clear evidence of a shift in the balance of power
in the global knowledge economy from the established higher education systems
in the west to those in parts of the east. This trend is likely to accelerate
further as the coronavirus pandemic heralds a perfect storm of huge challenges
for primarily western universities, particularly those in the US and UK, who
face the very real risk of losing significant international student talent, and the billions
of dollars in fees that they bring. In the longer term, possibly permanent
shifts in the global flow of academic talent that has traditionally fuelled the
elite institutions of the US and UK could create real challenges.
While
the universities at the very top of the table, with long histories of success
and prestige, will prove hard to unseat, these factors, combined with the
effects of a possible deep and long-lasting global recession and its likely
impact on university funding levels, could herald the start a dramatic
re-balancing of the global knowledge economy.”
View the
full THE World University Rankings 2021:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2021/world-ranking
View the full THE
World University Rankings 2021 methodology:
1.
Summary Results and Tables
Top
200
|
Rank |
University
Name |
Country
/ Region |
|
1 |
University
of Oxford |
United
Kingdom |
|
2 |
Stanford
University |
United
States |
|
3 |
Harvard
University |
United
States |
|
4 |
California
Institute of Technology |
United
States |
|
5 |
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology |
United
States |
|
6 |
University
of Cambridge |
United
Kingdom |
|
7 |
University
of California, Berkeley |
United
States |
|
8 |
Yale
University |
United
States |
|
9 |
Princeton
University |
United
States |
|
10 |
University
of Chicago |
United
States |
|
11 |
Imperial
College London |
United
Kingdom |
|
12 |
Johns
Hopkins University |
United
States |
|
13 |
University
of Pennsylvania |
United
States |
|
14 |
ETH
Zurich |
Switzerland |
|
15 |
University
of California, Los Angeles |
United
States |
|
16 |
UCL |
United
Kingdom |
|
17 |
Columbia
University |
United
States |
|
18 |
University
of Toronto |
Canada |
|
19 |
Cornell
University |
United
States |
|
=20 |
Tsinghua
University |
China |
|
=20 |
Duke
University |
United
States |
|
22 |
University
of Michigan-Ann Arbor |
United
States |
|
23 |
Peking
University |
China |
|
24 |
Northwestern
University |
United
States |
|
25 |
National
University of Singapore |
Singapore |
|
26 |
New
York University |
United
States |
|
27 |
London
School of Economics and Political Science |
United
Kingdom |
|
28 |
Carnegie
Mellon University |
United
States |
|
29 |
University
of Washington |
United
States |
|
30 |
University
of Edinburgh |
United
Kingdom |
|
31 |
University
of Melbourne |
Australia |
|
32 |
LMU
Munich |
Germany |
|
33 |
University
of California, San Diego |
United
States |
|
34 |
University
of British Columbia |
Canada |
|
35 |
King’s
College London |
United
Kingdom |
|
=36 |
Karolinska
Institute |
Sweden |
|
=36 |
The
University of Tokyo |
Japan |
|
38 |
Georgia
Institute of Technology |
United
States |
|
39 |
University
of Hong Kong |
Hong
Kong |
|
40 |
McGill
University |
Canada |
|
41 |
Technical
University of Munich |
Germany |
|
42 |
Heidelberg
University |
Germany |
|
43 |
École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne |
Switzerland |
|
44 |
University
of Texas at Austin |
United
States |
|
45 |
KU
Leuven |
Belgium |
|
46 |
Paris
Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris |
France |
|
47 |
Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore |
Singapore |
|
48 |
University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
United
States |
|
49 |
University
of Wisconsin-Madison |
United
States |
|
50 |
Washington
University in St Louis |
United
States |
|
=51 |
University
of Manchester |
United
Kingdom |
|
=51 |
University
of Sydney |
Australia |
|
53 |
University
of Southern California |
United
States |
|
=54 |
Kyoto
University |
Japan |
|
=54 |
Boston
University |
United
States |
|
=56 |
Chinese
University of Hong Kong |
Hong
Kong |
|
=56 |
The
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
Hong
Kong |
|
=56 |
University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
United
States |
|
59 |
Australian
National University |
Australia |
|
60 |
Seoul
National University |
South
Korea |
|
61 |
Brown
University |
United
States |
|
=62 |
The
University of Queensland |
Australia |
|
=62 |
Wageningen
University & Research |
Netherlands |
|
=64 |
University
of California, Davis |
United
States |
|
=64 |
Monash
University |
Australia |
|
66 |
University
of Amsterdam |
Netherlands |
|
67 |
UNSW
Sydney |
Australia |
|
68 |
University
of California, Santa Barbara |
United
States |
|
69 |
McMaster
University |
Canada |
|
=70 |
Fudan
University |
China |
|
=70 |
Leiden
University |
Netherlands |
|
72 |
Erasmus
University Rotterdam |
Netherlands |
|
=73 |
University
of Montreal |
Canada |
|
=73 |
University
of Zurich |
Switzerland |
|
=75 |
Charité
- Universitätsmedizin Berlin |
Germany |
|
=75 |
Utrecht
University |
Netherlands |
|
77 |
University
of Warwick |
United
Kingdom |
|
=78 |
Delft
University of Technology |
Netherlands |
|
=78 |
University
of Tübingen |
Germany |
|
=80 |
University
of Groningen |
Netherlands |
|
=80 |
Humboldt
University of Berlin |
Germany |
|
=80 |
Ohio
State University (Main campus) |
United
States |
|
83 |
University
of Freiburg |
Germany |
|
84 |
University
of Copenhagen |
Denmark |
|
=85 |
Emory
University |
United
States |
|
=85 |
University
of Minnesota |
United
States |
|
=87 |
École
Polytechnique |
France |
|
=87 |
University
of Science and Technology of China |
China |
|
=87 |
Sorbonne
University |
France |
|
90 |
University
of Maryland, College Park |
United
States |
|
91 |
University
of Bristol |
United
Kingdom |
|
=92 |
University
of Basel |
Switzerland |
|
=92 |
University
of Glasgow |
United
Kingdom |
|
=94 |
Purdue
University West Lafayette |
United
States |
|
=94 |
Zhejiang
University |
China |
|
96 |
Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) |
South
Korea |
|
97 |
National
Taiwan University |
Taiwan |
|
=98 |
University
of California, Irvine |
United
States |
|
=98 |
University
of Helsinki |
Finland |
|
100 |
Shanghai
Jiao Tong University |
China |
|
=101
|
Sungkyunkwan
University (SKKU) |
South
Korea |
|
=101 |
Dartmouth
College |
United
States |
|
=103 |
Ghent
University |
Belgium |
|
=103 |
Lund
University |
Sweden |
|
105 |
Michigan
State University |
United
States |
|
106 |
Aarhus
University |
Denmark |
|
=107 |
University
of Birmingham |
United
Kingdom |
|
=107 |
RWTH
Aachen University |
Germany |
|
109 |
University
of Bern |
Switzerland |
|
110 |
Queen
Mary University of London |
United
Kingdom |
|
=111 |
Nanjing
University |
China |
|
=111 |
Uppsala
University |
Sweden |
|
=111 |
Vanderbilt
University |
United
States |
|
=114 |
University
of Bonn |
Germany |
|
=114 |
Penn
State (Main campus) |
United
States |
|
116 |
Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam |
Netherlands |
|
117 |
University
of Virginia (Main campus) |
United
States |
|
=118 |
University
of Adelaide |
Australia |
|
=118 |
Free
University of Berlin |
Germany |
|
120 |
Georgetown
University |
United
States |
|
=121 |
Maastricht
University |
Netherlands |
|
=121 |
University
of Sheffield |
United
Kingdom |
|
=121 |
Case
Western Reserve University |
United
States |
|
=124 |
Rice
University |
United
States |
|
=124 |
University
of Arizona |
United
States |
|
126 |
City
University of Hong Kong |
Hong
Kong |
|
=127 |
University
of Oslo |
Norway |
|
=127 |
University
of Southampton |
United
Kingdom |
|
129 |
Hong
Kong Polytechnic University |
Hong
Kong |
|
130 |
University
of Göttingen |
Germany |
|
=131 |
University
of Alberta |
Canada |
|
=131 |
University
of Colorado Boulder |
United
States |
|
=133 |
University
of York |
United
Kingdom |
|
=133 |
University
of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus |
United
States |
|
135 |
University
of Hamburg |
Germany |
|
=136 |
Lancaster
University |
United
Kingdom |
|
=136 |
University
of Paris |
France |
|
=136 |
Radboud
University Nijmegen |
Netherlands |
|
139 |
The
University of Western Australia |
Australia |
|
=140 |
University
of Mannheim |
Germany |
|
=140 |
Technical
University of Berlin |
Germany |
|
=140 |
Ulm
University |
Germany |
|
=140 |
University
of Würzburg |
Germany |
|
=140 |
Indiana
University |
United
States |
|
=145 |
University
of Cologne |
Germany |
|
=145 |
University
of Ottawa |
Canada |
|
=147 |
University
of Rochester |
United
States |
|
=147 |
University
of Auckland |
New
Zealand |
|
=149 |
Durham
University |
United
Kingdom |
|
=149 |
University
of Geneva |
Switzerland |
|
151 |
Pohang
University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) |
South
Korea |
|
=152 |
Pompeu
Fabra University |
Spain |
|
=152 |
TU
Dresden |
Germany |
|
=152 |
University
of Florida |
United
States |
|
=155 |
University
of Cape Town |
South
Africa |
|
=155 |
Trinity
College Dublin |
Republic
of Ireland |
|
=155 |
Tufts
University |
United
States |
|
=158 |
Bielefeld
University |
Germany |
|
=158 |
University
of Nottingham |
United
Kingdom |
|
=160 |
University
of Leeds |
United
Kingdom |
|
=160 |
University
of Sussex |
United
Kingdom |
|
=160 |
University
of Technology Sydney |
Australia |
|
163 |
University
of Liverpool |
United
Kingdom |
|
=164 |
Université
Catholique de Louvain |
Belgium |
|
=164 |
University
of Vienna |
Austria |
|
166 |
Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey |
United
States |
|
=167 |
University
of Bologna |
Italy |
|
=167 |
Korea
University |
South
Korea |
|
169 |
University
of Alabama at Birmingham |
United
States |
|
=170 |
University
of Notre Dame |
United
States |
|
=170 |
University
of Antwerp |
Belgium |
|
=170 |
University
of Leicester |
United
Kingdom |
|
=170 |
Sant’Anna
School of Advanced Studies – Pisa |
Italy |
|
=174 |
University
of Exeter |
United
Kingdom |
|
=174 |
Lomonosov
Moscow State University |
Russian
Federation |
|
=176 |
Northeastern
University |
United
States |
|
=176 |
Ulsan
National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) |
South
Korea |
|
=178 |
University
of Aberdeen |
United
Kingdom |
|
=178 |
Newcastle
University |
United
Kingdom |
|
=178 |
Paris-Saclay
University |
France |
|
181 |
Scuola
Normale Superiore di Pisa |
Italy |
|
182 |
Autonomous
University of Barcelona |
Spain |
|
183 |
Stockholm
University |
Sweden |
|
=184 |
Arizona
State University (Tempe) |
United
States |
|
=184 |
University
of Canberra |
Australia |
|
186 |
Queensland
University of Technology |
Australia |
|
=187 |
Eindhoven
University of Technology |
Netherlands |
|
=187 |
George
Washington University |
United
States |
|
=187 |
Technical
University of Denmark |
Denmark |
|
=187 |
Yonsei
University (Seoul campus) |
South
Korea |
|
=191 |
Cardiff
University |
United
Kingdom |
|
=191 |
University
of Gothenburg |
Sweden |
|
=191 |
University
of Lausanne |
Switzerland |
|
=191 |
Tel
Aviv University |
Israel |
|
=195 |
Macquarie
University |
Australia |
|
=195 |
University
of Münster |
Germany |
|
197 |
Texas
A&M University |
United
States |
|
=198 |
University
of Barcelona |
Spain |
|
=198 |
University
of Erlangen-Nuremberg |
Germany |
|
=200 |
University
of Calgary |
Canada |
|
=200 |
University
of East Anglia |
United
Kingdom |
|
=200 |
Queen’s
University Belfast |
United
Kingdom |
Table source: THE