No Bangladeshi university among Asia’s top 100

No Bangladeshi university has managed to secure a place among the top 100 institutions in the Asia University Rankings 2020, released by the Times Higher Education on Wednesday.

The only Bangladeshi institution on the list, the University of Dhaka, has ranked 401+ among 489 universities from 30 countries across Asia, while institutions from Japan, China and India dominated the top 100 positions this year.

The Asia University Rankings 2020 reflects the persistently poor status of Bangladeshi universities, as even in 2019, no local institutions had made it to Asia's top 100.

Responding to a query, Dhaka University's Vice Chancellor Professor Akhtaruzzaman said, "We are trying to ensure quality education and are putting more emphasis on research activities. We are not concerned about any rankings.

"We are trying to improve the overall academic activities of this university."

Meanwhile, educationist Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam said, "Every country gives the education sector a high priority in their budget. But in our case, it is in a sorry state. I do not see any hope for Bangladeshi universities to make to the top of the list anytime soon.

"No Bangladeshi university will be in the top 100 even in the next 100 years if the budget is not increased for the education sector, particularly for research."

He further said, "Even if you make a list of 100 universities in South Asia, no Bangladeshi universities will get a position there. Our universities also suffer from inefficient management as most of them were appointed on a partisan basis."

The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2020 uses the same 13 performance indicators as its World University Rankings, but the indicators are recalibrated to reflect the attributes of Asia's institutions.

The universities are judged across all their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook – to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available.

This year, China is home to the continent's top two universities for the first time, as Tsinghua University holds on to the first place and Peking University climbs three places to rank second.

Meanwhile, Japan is once again the most-represented nation in the list with 110 institutions, up from 103 last year. Elsewhere, Macau University of Science and Technology became the top new entry in the table, debuting at the 32nd place.

Eight universities of India secured positions in the top 100 ranking this year.