Global higher education analyst QS Quacquarelli Symonds has released the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2027, evaluating 1,722 academic institutions across 26 countries and territories in Asia. Uzbekistan made a substantial leap forward with 38 universities securing places in the rankings, 15 of which were featured for the very first time. Overall national performance improved by 17% year-on-year.
Leading the charge for Uzbekistan is the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME National Research University), which placed 113th across the Asian continent, despite slipping 10 spots from its previous standing. The National University of Uzbekistan secured 196th place, while Samarkand State University posted an impressive advance of 92 positions to land at 215th. The most dramatic ascent came from Namangan State Technical University, which leaped 245 spots into 469th place.
Other Uzbek academic institutions featured within the regional top 600 include Tashkent State University of Economics (255th), Tashkent State Technical University (281st), Tashkent University of Information Technologies (549th), Tashkent State Transport University (553rd), Uzbek National Pedagogical University named after Nizami (578th), and Urgench State University (590th).
The ranking framework evaluates universities across 11 specific indicators. QS data indicates that institutions in Uzbekistan earned strong marks in Employer Reputation, International Faculty Ratio, and Student Exchange opportunities. However, research output and scholarly impact remain critical bottlenecks: local universities registered their lowest scores in Citations per Paper and Papers per Faculty. Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President at QS, noted that while Uzbekistan is among the fastest-expanding higher education systems in the region, future breakthroughs depend directly on bolstering domestic scientific output.
The University of Hong Kong retained the top position across the continent, followed by Peking University and Tsinghua University. In Central Asia as a whole, 99 universities from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan successfully entered this year's regional benchmark.
Source: www.gazeta.uz