ITS Research Intelligence
Pakistan University Research Rankings
Compare Pakistan universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.
Research landscape
The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 79 index-ready universities in Pakistan. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 1,853 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 8,815. The average publication-growth signal is 32.2%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.
Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.
Top research universities in Pakistan
| Rank | University | Country | Score | 5-year works | 5-year citations | Growth |
|---|
| #1 | University of Lahore | Pakistan | 66.8 | 14,739 | 99,005 | -11.1% |
| #2 | Air University | Pakistan | 59.8 | 3,485 | 38,410 | -11.3% |
| #3 | King Edward Medical University | Pakistan | 59.7 | 5,711 | 13,959 | 36.8% |
| #4 | Gomal University | Pakistan | 59.7 | 4,139 | 23,210 | 17.2% |
| #5 | University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir | Pakistan | 59.3 | 4,312 | 29,516 | -23.4% |
| #6 | Allama Iqbal Medical College | Pakistan | 58.5 | 3,992 | 7,816 | 67.9% |
| #7 | Kohat University of Science and Technology | Pakistan | 58.0 | 3,193 | 19,439 | -19.5% |
| #8 | University of Wah | Pakistan | 57.7 | 2,530 | 14,923 | 41.1% |
| #9 | University of Balochistan | Pakistan | 57.5 | 5,054 | 13,295 | -10.1% |
| #10 | Ziauddin University | Pakistan | 57.3 | 3,828 | 11,044 | 22.3% |
| #11 | Islamia College University | Pakistan | 57.2 | 3,139 | 18,685 | -16.6% |
| #12 | NED University of Engineering and Technology | Pakistan | 57.1 | 3,185 | 17,468 | -12.3% |
| #13 | Karachi Medical and Dental College | Pakistan | 57.1 | 4,777 | 9,790 | 21.4% |
| #14 | University of Science and Technology Bannu | Pakistan | 56.9 | 2,367 | 16,467 | 15.9% |
| #15 | National University of Modern Languages | Pakistan | 56.4 | 3,601 | 14,455 | 4.9% |
| #16 | Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology | Pakistan | 56.1 | 3,201 | 14,171 | -11.6% |
| #17 | Sindh Agriculture University | Pakistan | 56.0 | 2,268 | 9,674 | 29.3% |
| #18 | National Textile University | Pakistan | 56.0 | 1,833 | 16,300 | -12.8% |
| #19 | Women Medical College | Pakistan | 55.3 | 2,224 | 2,684 | 56.0% |
| #20 | Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences | Pakistan | 54.7 | 2,163 | 17,132 | -40.7% |
| #21 | Punjab Medical College | Pakistan | 54.6 | 2,659 | 7,375 | 38.3% |
| #22 | Institute of Space Technology | Pakistan | 54.6 | 1,783 | 14,133 | -25.9% |
| #23 | Shah Abdul Latif University | Pakistan | 54.3 | 1,933 | 7,558 | 31.6% |
| #24 | Allama Iqbal Open University | Pakistan | 54.2 | 2,140 | 9,870 | -9.1% |
| #25 | Qarshi University | Pakistan | 54.1 | 1,278 | 1,077 | 336.2% |
| #26 | HITEC University | Pakistan | 53.1 | 1,298 | 10,919 | -24.0% |
| #27 | Abasyn University | Pakistan | 52.9 | 1,478 | 11,760 | -8.9% |
| #28 | University College of Islamabad | Pakistan | 52.7 | 818 | 2,270 | 98.3% |
| #29 | Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology | Pakistan | 52.6 | 1,557 | 6,812 | 16.5% |
| #30 | Foundation University Islamabad | Pakistan | 52.4 | 1,352 | 5,718 | -0.7% |
| #31 | Foundation University Medical College | Pakistan | 51.7 | 1,545 | 4,511 | 26.2% |
| #32 | Services Institute of Medical Sciences | Pakistan | 51.7 | 1,910 | 3,127 | 47.6% |
| #33 | Lasbela University of Agriculture Water and Marine Science | Pakistan | 51.6 | 836 | 4,957 | 26.3% |
| #34 | Dawood University of Engineering and Technology | Pakistan | 51.5 | 880 | 8,515 | -17.0% |
| #35 | Army Medical College | Pakistan | 51.4 | 5,609 | 2,103 | -67.9% |
| #36 | Fatima Jinnah Medical University | Pakistan | 51.2 | 1,609 | 3,877 | 26.1% |
| #37 | City University of Science and Information Technology | Pakistan | 51.0 | 807 | 7,343 | -13.5% |
| #38 | Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering & Technology | Pakistan | 50.9 | 841 | 5,669 | 28.5% |
| #39 | Mohi-ud-Din Islamic University | Pakistan | 50.6 | 1,016 | 8,233 | -22.5% |
| #40 | Sindh Madressatul Islam University | Pakistan | 50.5 | 937 | 5,857 | 12.5% |
| #41 | Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University | Pakistan | 50.1 | 2,092 | 4,803 | -1.9% |
| #42 | Indus University | Pakistan | 50.1 | 449 | 1,570 | 151.9% |
| #43 | CECOS University | Pakistan | 49.8 | 875 | 7,009 | -29.8% |
| #44 | National Defence University | Pakistan | 49.6 | 1,145 | 2,819 | 42.9% |
| #45 | Beaconhouse National University | Pakistan | 49.4 | 486 | 1,512 | 156.4% |
| #46 | Northern University | Pakistan | 49.0 | 859 | 3,372 | 30.8% |
| #47 | Institute of Business Administration Karachi | Pakistan | 49.0 | 807 | 3,964 | 4.1% |
| #48 | Mohammad Ali Jinnah University | Pakistan | 48.8 | 719 | 2,731 | -3.4% |
| #49 | Lahore School of Economics | Pakistan | 48.7 | 706 | 3,327 | 7.7% |
| #50 | Rashid Latif Medical College | Pakistan | 48.4 | 1,278 | 1,930 | 24.5% |
| #51 | Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University | Pakistan | 47.6 | 808 | 3,373 | -13.4% |
| #52 | Jinnah University for Women | Pakistan | 47.5 | 801 | 3,253 | -12.3% |
| #53 | Pakistan Institute of Development Economics | Pakistan | 47.4 | 656 | 4,455 | -42.0% |
| #54 | Institute of Management Sciences Lahore | Pakistan | 46.8 | 403 | 1,224 | 125.7% |
| #55 | Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology | Pakistan | 46.5 | 619 | 3,849 | -34.1% |
| #56 | University of South Asia | Pakistan | 46.4 | 646 | 2,017 | 37.9% |
| #57 | Chandka Medical College | Pakistan | 45.9 | 654 | 1,218 | 26.3% |
| #58 | Imperial College of Business Studies | Pakistan | 45.6 | 137 | 848 | 137.1% |
| #59 | DHA Suffa University | Pakistan | 45.5 | 556 | 1,534 | 27.7% |
| #60 | National College of Arts | Pakistan | 44.1 | 288 | 361 | 168.3% |
| #61 | Preston University | Pakistan | 43.6 | 215 | 1,795 | -4.7% |
| #62 | University of East | Pakistan | 43.4 | 202 | 238 | 157.8% |
| #63 | Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology | Pakistan | 42.8 | 326 | 1,485 | 3.2% |
| #64 | Greenwich University | Pakistan | 42.6 | 294 | 1,542 | 18.1% |
| #65 | Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education | Pakistan | 42.4 | 267 | 140 | 506.7% |
| #66 | Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology | Pakistan | 39.4 | 237 | 433 | 51.3% |
| #67 | Fatima Jinnah Dental College | Pakistan | 38.0 | 233 | 405 | 5.4% |
| #68 | Hajvery University | Pakistan | 31.3 | 102 | 69 | 5.7% |
Transparent methodology
What the ITS Research Performance Score measures
The current score is intentionally research-specific. Thirty percent reflects five-year publication output, thirty percent five-year citations, twenty percent h-index, ten percent i10-index and ten percent five-year publication growth. Volume-based indicators are log-normalized before weighting so the largest universities do not dominate simply because of scale. Growth is bounded before entering the score so a tiny starting value cannot create an unrealistic advantage.
The score does not currently claim to measure teaching quality, student satisfaction, reputation, employability or finances. It also does not label the underlying citation totals as field-normalized impact. Future field-normalized modules should be added only when the underlying work-level calculations are available and validated. This separation keeps the ranking interpretable and prevents unsupported claims.
Source data is drawn from OpenAlex and linked to ROR identifiers. Both are open scholarly infrastructures. ITS Research Solution adds value through normalization, quality gates, trend calculations, ranking methodology, benchmarking and readable institution-level analysis.