How Dhaka University made strides in world university rankings

Today, 1 July, marks the 103rd founding anniversary of Dhaka University. The oldest higher educational institute of the country has been feted with good news just before its anniversary as it entered into the best 600 universities of the world in an international ranking. However insignificant this jump might seem to someone, it certainly is good news for the university’s stakeholders given all the shortcomings and fund-deficit it faces.

DU was ranked 554th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2025 published in the first week of June. The oldest university in the country made a significant jump from its 2024 ranking of 691-700 to 554th in 2025. The QS, a higher education analyst and a for-profit services provider based in London, is deemed as the most reliable among organisations that assesses performance of the universities.

Upon analyzing the previous rankings, it can be seen that the DU never attained a place inside 600. DU had been placed in the 801-1000 range for five consecutive years from 2019 to 2023. It was ranked 701+ from 2014 to 2017 and 701-750 in 2018. The university's previous highest ranking was 601+ in 2012. The university also saw an improvement in its position last year too, securing 691-700 spot.

The QS rank universities on nine criteria-- academic reputation, citations per faculty, employment outcomes, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international faculty ratio, international research network, international student ratio and sustainability. The DU’s overall score this year was 22.4.

A comparison with last year’s score shows that the DU made big leaps in two indicators—employment and international research network—this year. While the university scored 30 in employment in the previous year’s rankings, it achieved 93.7 this year. The DU’s score in the international research network also increased to 52 from the previous year’s 2.1. The university’s scores in academic reputation, citations per faculty and sustainability also saw a tad improvement.

According to the official website of QS, academic reputation deals with quality and impact of research done in the university. Employment reputation looks at how successful a university is in providing this preparedness to the student for the employment market. Citations per faculty sees the extent of quality research by the teachers of a university.

Employment indicator is evaluated through two factors. One is to see what percentage of graduates go on to paid work within 15 months of graduating and the other is alumni outcome that sees which institutions are producing impactful graduates.

The international research network is a measure of global engagement, and specifically on how institutions create and sustain research partnerships resulting in internationally co-authored publications with other institutions across borders to collaborate on solving the world's challenges and disseminate vital research to wider audiences.

Some recent steps taken by the university authorities have contributed to the ‘big leap’ in the university’s position in the latest ranking. Two major steps are giving the teachers grants for publication of research papers in recognized international journals and increasing the university’s collaboration with foreign universities across the world. Besides, the university has formulated a policy to prevent plagiarism in research.

The university’s syndicate, the highest decision making body, at a meeting on 29 July in 2021 took the decision to give the teachers grants for publication of research works in international journals with impact factors. The initiative was introduced to increase the quality and scope of basic and applied research among the teachers and researchers of the university.

The grants are provided mainly to help teachers finance for publishing their research in the international journals as all recognized journals charge a certain amount of fees for any publication. The university teachers are receiving up to USD 2,000 for publication processing fees or open access fees. The university is providing funds for the teacher to publish their research works in journals with an impact factor of at least two for science disciplines and at least one for other disciplines. This factor contributed to DU’s improvement in the latest rankings.

DU vice chancellor ASM Maksud Kamal said, “Our publications in impact factor journals have increased almost three fold in comparison with the last two years. We’ve made a specific policy on research, and have started reaping the benefits of that policy. Research by teachers has increased, which is contributing to the rankings. Apart from this, we have now made it mandatory for 30 per cent of students in each department and institute to do a thesis at the post-graduate level. Earlier our website lacked updated information. Now the website has been updated. Still there remains a shortage but we are trying to fulfill them. If we can enrich the university's website with more information, as well as increase research, then we hope that our university will improve further next year."

The DU has also taken steps to increase its research-collaboration at the international level, which improved its score in the international research network. DU VC Maksud Kamal visited Japan and the UK last April. He said, “Our score in the international research network has increased as we’ve increased collaboration. Some teachers are doing research jointly with foreign universities where they did their PhD. I’ve recently visited some universities in Japan and the UK where I discussed joint collaboration in research. We’re focusing on increasing international networking to take the university to the international level. We are eying to further such initiatives.”

Some stakeholders think that the university might get some advantages in employment criteria due to its advancement in research. However, the VC said the QS collects data for this criterion through sending email to the alumni of the university seeking their opinion. The QS selects the alumni through random sampling and asks for their opinion.