Bangladeshi University Ranking 2016: The First-Ever Benchmark of Higher Education in Bangladesh by RESEARCH HUB

This report was originally published on the-research-hub.org in 2016. The ResearchHUB blog has since been discontinued, but I’m republishing this ranking here to keep it accessible. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first initiative of its kind to compare Bangladeshi universities using a combination of student survey data and research performance metrics.

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Why We Did This

As of 2016, Bangladesh was home to 163 million people and over 872,000 university students across 131 institutions — 37 public, 91 private, and 3 international. Yet not a single Bangladeshi university ranked within the Top 500 of global university rankings like QS or Financial Times. No institution held AACSB, EQUIS, or AMBA accreditation.

Despite this, no one had attempted a systematic comparison of Bangladeshi universities. Students had no transparent, data-driven way to evaluate institutions before choosing where to study. University authorities had no benchmark to identify where they stood relative to their peers.

We set out to change that.

How We Ranked Them

ResearchHUB developed a simple but structured methodology combining two data sources:

Student Survey (40% weight): We collected 3,768 responses from students and alumni of 124 Bangladeshi universities. Respondents assessed their institutions across 8 dimensions on a 5-point Likert scale — campus facility, library facility, academic qualification of faculty, student-faculty relationships, research outreach, international footprint, job placement, and overall reputation. 57% of responses came from private university students, 41% from public, and 2% from international institutions.

Research Performance (60% weight): We used ISI Web of Science data covering articles published in 2014–2015 and their total citations up to June 2016. This gave us an objective measure of each university’s research output and impact.

The final score for each university was a weighted average of both components, normalized to a 0–100 scale.

The Top 30 Bangladeshi Universities

Rank	University	City	Score
1	University of Dhaka	Dhaka	95.08
2	Jahangirnagar University	Dhaka	83.91
3	Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)	Dhaka	68.47
4	Independent University	Dhaka	66.86
5	Khulna University	Khulna	56.46
6	Shahjalal University of Science and Technology	Sylhet	50.75
7	University of Chittagong	Chittagong	47.62
8	Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology	Rajshahi	45.19
9	North South University	Dhaka	44.22
10	Brac University	Dhaka	42.84
11	Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University	Dinajpur	41.41
12	Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology	Chittagong	41.28
13	Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University	Tangail	40.79
14	Islamic University of Technology	Dhaka	40.55
15	Daffodil International University	Dhaka	40.54
16	University of Asia Pacific	Dhaka	40.18
17	American International University-Bangladesh	Dhaka	40.12
18	Jagannath University	Dhaka	40.02
19	International University of Business Agriculture and Technology	Dhaka	39.33
20	Khulna University of Engineering and Technology	Khulna	38.87
21	Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology	Dhaka	38.65
22	East West University	Dhaka	38.65
23	University of Rajshahi	Rajshahi	38.00
24	International Islamic University Chittagong	Chittagong	37.42
25	United International University	Dhaka	36.96
26	Bangladesh University of Textiles	Dhaka	36.67
27	Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology	Dhaka	36.63
28	BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology	Dhaka	36.27
29	Bangladesh University of Professionals	Dhaka	35.84
30	Southeast University	Dhaka	35.01

Top 10 by Research Performance Alone

When we looked purely at research output — articles published in ISI Web of Science journals and their citations — the picture shifted somewhat:

Rank	University	Articles Published	Total Citations	Score
1	University of Dhaka	429	772	100.00
2	Jahangirnagar University	247	685	79.57
3	BUET	240	395	50.31
4	Independent University	32	545	48.91
5	Khulna University	135	316	36.34
6	Shahjalal University of Science and Technology	108	181	22.92
7	University of Chittagong	86	164	20.89
8	Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology	55	144	16.94
9	Brac University	83	72	12.27
10	North South University	64	71	10.47

Independent University’s strong showing — ranked 4th despite publishing only 32 articles — was driven by highly cited research from its Department of Environmental Science.

Top 10 by Student Survey Alone

Based purely on what students and alumni said about their institutions:

Rank	University	Score
1	Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology	95.70
2	North South University	94.85
3	Islamic University of Technology	94.75
4	Independent University	93.79
5	International University of Business Agriculture and Technology	92.87
6	University of Asia Pacific	92.74
7	University of Rajshahi	92.58
8	Shahjalal University of Science and Technology	92.50
9	Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology	91.58
10	Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University	91.56

Public vs. Private: A False Dichotomy

One finding that stood out was the strong performance of several private universities. In Bangladesh, private institutions often face criticism simply for being private. But our data told a different story.

Independent University ranked 4th overall — right behind DU, JU, and BUET. North South University, BRAC University, Daffodil International University, University of Asia Pacific, and AIUB all scored above 40, placing them within the top 18 alongside well-established public universities.

The takeaway was clear: universities should be evaluated on their accomplishments, quality of education, and research output — not on whether they are public or private.

The Gap With Global Rankings

To put things in perspective, in the QS World University Ranking 2016, the top Asian universities in the global top 50 included the National University of Singapore (#12), University of Hong Kong (#27), and University of Tokyo (#34). Bangladesh’s top-ranked institution, the University of Dhaka, was placed at #701+.

The research gap was even more striking. In 2014–2015, the National University of Singapore alone published 13,784 articles in ISI Web of Science journals — more than all Bangladeshi universities combined. Even the University of Chile at #200 globally had produced 4,390 articles with 12,575 citations during the same period.

Looking Back, 10 Years Later

This ranking was published in 2016, when ResearchHUB was a small initiative run by four PhD students based in Japan, Australia, Canada, and Norway. We had planned to make it an annual exercise and continuously improve the methodology.

Life took a different turn. ResearchHUB evolved into an online education platform focused on research methodology and academic publishing — now serving users from 100+ countries and 187+ universities worldwide at researchhub.org. The university ranking was discontinued, but the core mission remained the same: making research better, more transparent, and more accessible.

I’m republishing this report here because I believe the data and the conversation it sparked still have value. Bangladesh’s higher education landscape has changed considerably since 2016, but many of the structural challenges we identified — limited research output, lack of international accreditation, and the need for greater transparency — remain relevant.

If anyone wants to pick up where we left off and build a more comprehensive, updated ranking of Bangladeshi universities, I’d be happy to share what we learned.

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The original report was produced by the ResearchHUB team: Ziaul Haque Munim (University of Agder, Norway), Jubair Ahmed Shamim (University of Tokyo, Japan), Qazi Haque (University of Adelaide, Australia), and Mamoon Ul Kader (Simon Fraser University, Canada), with external support from Jann Goedecke (KU Leuven, Belgium) and strategic advice from Shabbir Ahmed Tamim (Career Cafe, Bangladesh).

The full original PDF report is available for download HERE.