Among the universities in Bangladesh, only Dhaka University (DU) has secured a place among the top 2,000 universities on the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) 2023.
DU rose to 1729th position in the 2023 edition of the CWUR, which was released on Monday. The university was in 1773rd place last year.
Altogether 20,531 universities were ranked this year, with the top 2000 list including institutions from 95 countries.
According to CWUR, DU's rise in the rankings is due to stronger research performance. The university's research rank in the latest rankings is 1652.
Harvard holds the top spot in the global rankings. Chinese universities also showed strong performances, with 96% of them improving their positions on the back of continued investment in higher education in China.
CWUR, a consulting firm based in the United Arab Emirates, began publicising the rankings in 2012. The rankings analyse 62 million outcome-based data points to rank universities from around the world according to four factors: quality of education (25%), employability (25%), quality of faculty (10%), and research performance (40%).
Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, pro-vice chancellor (academic) of DU, told Dhaka Tribune: “The job of universities is to generate knowledge and conduct research that will enrich the nation and move society forward. Dhaka University is working in the same way as other international universities.”
He hoped DU would become a global benchmark for education in the near future.
Dr Nadim Mahassen, president of CWUR, said: “While it is encouraging to see University of Dhaka making gains in the rankings, funding to further promote the development and reputation of Bangladesh's higher education system is vital if the country aspires to be more competitive on the global stage. “
He added: “Efforts must be made to ensure that Bangladesh attracts top academics and students so that increasing enrolment numbers at universities come alongside increases in teaching capacity. Furthermore, tertiary education expenditure as a percentage of the national GDP should steadily grow in the years to come.”
He also pointed out that while the United States (US) continues to possess the top higher education system in the world, nearly 80% of US universities fell in the rankings due to intensified global competition from well-funded institutions, especially those in China.
“The overall slide of US universities mirrors those of French, German, and Japanese institutions, while the decline of UK and Russian universities has been less severe. With Chinese institutions challenging their Western counterparts, American and European universities cannot afford to rest on their laurels,” the CWUR president added.
Harvard in first place is followed by two other US institutions - MIT and Stanford. The UK's Cambridge and Oxford universities round out the top five.
The top 10 include five more US universities - Princeton, Chicago, Columbia, Pennsylvania and Yale.
Education minister calls on universities to improve in global rankings
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni has urged the universities of Bangladesh to raise their standards to international levels in order to improve in global rankings.
Pointing out that the country's universities are far behind the universities of many other countries in the rankings, the education minister said: “We were not focusing on the factors that we need to focus on to be on top of the rankings. We have highly skilled researchers and quality teachers, but we were not focused on all the factors on which the ranking depends. Now the universities are paying attention.”
She added that more Bangladeshi universities would show up in global rankings in the near future.