LAHORE: (Thursday, June 9, 2022): QS World University Rankings, which is officially recognized by the Government of the Punjab and Punjab Higher Education Commission, has ranked Punjab University among top 57 percent universities of the world in its fresh ranking for 2023. In 2018, QS had ranked PU among the best 78.5 percent universities of the world. During the four-year tenure of former Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, Punjab University rose by 22% in the rankings while it is very hard to improve even one percent all the universities across the world are competing. A meeting of the Deans Committee was held under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Saleem Mazhar to pay tribute to former Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed for making day and night efforts to improve the international ranking of PU. Addressing the meeting, Dr Muhammad Saleem Mazhar and deans said that the continuous improvement in the world ranking of PU was the result of the policies of Prof Niaz Ahmed. Dr Mazhar said that under the leadership of Prof Niaz, Punjab University was declared as the 145th best university in Asia. He said that in 2022, 15 subjects of Punjab University were included in the international rankings. He said that PU’s subject of Petroleum Engineering was ranked among top 100-150 institutions of the world while it has been ranked among top 101-130 universities in the subject of religious studies. He said that The Nature Publishing Group, a world-class publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online founded in 1869, has also ranked Punjab University No 1 in terms of research publications in the field of natural sciences amongst all Pakistani universities. He said that PU was improving its ranking due to the university administration’s focus on good governance, transparency, merit and research work. He appreciated Chairman Ranking Committee Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood for making efforts to improve the university’s ranking and congratulated PU faculty members, employees and students on this achievement. Dr Khalid briefed the meeting about the initiatives to get this landmark.