Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — A total of 38 universities from Uzbekistan have been included in the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2027, including 15 new entrants. The ranking covers 1,722 universities across 26 countries and territories in Asia.
According to QS Quacquarelli Symonds, Uzbekistan’s overall performance in the ranking improved by 17%.
The highest-ranked Uzbek institution was the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanisation Engineers – National Research University (TIIAME NRU), which placed 113th, compared with 103rd a year earlier.
The National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek ranked 196th, down from 180th in the previous edition. Samarkand State University, by contrast, recorded a significant improvement, rising from 307th to 215th place.
Tashkent State University of Economics ranked 255th, improving on its previous position of 274th. Tashkent State Technical University moved up from 301st to 281st place.
Namangan State Technical University ranked 469th, compared with the 951–1,000 range in the previous edition.
Other Uzbek institutions in the regional top 600 included Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi (549th), Tashkent State Transport University (553rd), Nizami National Pedagogical University of Uzbekistan (578th) and Urgench State University (590th).
The QS Asia ranking evaluates universities based on 11 criteria. Its methodology takes into account the specific characteristics of the Asian region and differs from the approach used for the global QS World University Rankings.
According to QS, Uzbek universities perform relatively well in employer reputation, the proportion of international faculty and student exchange.
Research remains a major challenge. Universities in Uzbekistan received their lowest scores for citations per publication and the number of research publications per faculty member.
QS Senior Vice President Ben Sowter said Uzbekistan’s higher education system was among the most dynamic in this year’s ranking. He noted that the sector’s expansion, growing number of international partnerships and the performance of individual institutions, particularly Samarkand State University, reflected its development.
However, further improvements in the rankings will depend on strengthening universities’ research capacity, taking into account the expanding scale of the higher education system and its international ambitions, Sowter said.
The University of Hong Kong retained first place in the overall Asian ranking.
Peking University remained in second place, while Tsinghua University climbed nine positions to take third. The top 20 also included universities from Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia.
Central Asia was represented by 99 universities in the ranking, from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
