The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings, the pioneer in this field, has come up with ranking of global universities for their excellence in higher education for the year 2025. It is also the first to introduce what it calls the 'Sustainability' metric from 2023. But this has not changed the position of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which has now held the top position for straight 13 times. For Bangladesh, however, there is good news. This is for the first time that the country's premier highest seat of learning, the University of Dhaka has secured the 554th slot in the ranking.
While this serves as an occasion for celebration, a comparison even with Africa pales the achievement before the top five universities there with South Africa's University of Cape Town placed at 171st and Cairo University of Egypt at 350th. Also 14 Arab universities were placed in the top 500 list. Compared with the big neighbours in the region, the picture emerges gloomier yet. Both China and India have moved up the ranking not in terms of improvement alone but also in the number of institutions. China have 33 universities among the top 500 including five in the 100 highest ranked of them. It has 37 such institutions higher in ranking than the DU position.
Although India has none among the top 100 global universities, it has 11 such learning seats among the 500 top ranked. Its best ranked institute this time is the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay at 118 place. That country has one more university, making the count 12 to precede the DU position. Here the most significant point is the ranking of the Indian Institute of Technology at different locations. Of the 11 highest seats of learning, all except three such as the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, the Delhi University and the Anna University, rank among the world's top 500.
In this context, the rankings of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the premier university of its kind, and others fashioned after its education curricula, are pitiable indeed. The BUET has been placed in the 761-770 band but no other of its kind could even score enough points to be placed even in the 1001-1200 group. But the BRAC University could make it to that club. The North South University does even better to have a place among the 901-950 category.
By the country's standard of higher education, however, this is an improvement. But when the institutions of science and technology lag behind general universities, this surely is a cause for concern. It is exactly at this point the 'employability' metric counts and counts quite decisively. So long, the metric of research papers published in international journals and their citation had an overwhelming bearing on the excellence of ranking. It still does but not exactly in the same way it did in the past.
An example of this is the Imperial College London, UK. Its progress is phenomenal with a move up four places to the second slot after the MIT. Among other factors, its 'Sustainability' score of 99.7 out of a hundred has been largely responsible for this achievement. Its score of 93.9 in various research metrics including 'Citations per faculty' also improved from 86.5 last time. But that was almost 6.0 points lower than the 'Sustainability' score and yet it did not impede its progress to number two position. There lies its unique significance.
According to the QS ranking, "Sustainability' metric recognises the growing importance of sustainable development to students, institutions and employers and the world'. The indicator carries its weight in the context of utility of the knowledge gained. To quote further, "This metric evaluates not only an institution's sustainable practices but also its influence on global sustainability through teaching, research, and partnerships." This leads to moral imperatives of students in raising environmental consciousness. Here the employment indicator has also been fine-tuned in sync with 'Sustainability'. The metric of employability can now measure more accurately the percentage of students getting employed within 15 months of graduation.
In contrast, Bangladesh universities are churning out graduates of whom an astoundingly high per cent is remaining unemployed. The reports on unemployment also vary widely. According to an Economist Intelligence Unit report, 47 per cent graduates in Bangladesh do not find employment even after three years of graduation. The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies puts this rate at 66 per cent. Again, the Sample Vital Statistics report of the Bangladesh Bureau Statistics 2022 found that 40.67 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 24 are neither in work nor in employment.
This is where education's relevance to livelihoods or careers, no matter if it is at secondary, higher secondary and tertiary levels, proves so crucial. The base of technical, technological and industrial education has to be solidified in order to make education employable and, in the context of climate change, sustainable. The University of Dhaka has advanced its cause but it still has a long way to go before featuring in the top 200 or 100 universities in the world. More is, however, expected of the engineering and technological universities because at a time when the artificial intelligence is poised to unfold a completely uncharted world, they have a responsibility to gear up their system and be equal to the task.
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