How Bangladeshi universities compare to QS university ranking topper MIT

Why did Bangladeshi universities fail to improve their standing in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University? A look at the metrics used to determine the top-rated university compared to Bangladeshi ones -- all of which remained in the 801-1000 range -- shows how far our universities are lagging behind. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which topped the list for the tenth year in a row, boasts a full score of 100 in the Academic Reputation metric. Dhaka University, on the other hand, scored a high of 17.9 among Bangladeshi universities, with Buet getting 13.1 and Brac University coming in with 16.8.

The Academic Reputation is given the highest weighting in the index and is crucial to a university's final ranking. It is based on QS's Academic Survey, which "collates the expert opinions of over 130,000 individuals in the higher education space regarding teaching and research quality at the world's universities".

The second criteria to look at, where Bangladeshi universities barely made a mark, with Brac University not even being given any points, was Citations per Faculty. This is calculated by the total number of citations received by all papers produced by an institution across a five-year period by the number of faculty members at that institution. This metric also takes into account different publishing cultures in different fields. 

Here, DU, the most prestigious university in the country, scored a mere 2.8, while Buet came higher with 7.8. 

For International Faculty Ratio, MIT scored 100, DU scored 1.1 and neither of Brac or Buet were assigned any points. 

It's not all doom and gloom though. Brac University beat out both DU (29.9) and Buet (29.9) by scoring a high of 47.9 in the Employer Reputation category.  

Brac University, while scoring low was also the best performing Bangladeshi university in another metric: Faculty Student Ratio. Where DU and BUET scored 14.0 and 19.6 respectively, Brac scored 39.2. MIT, in comparison, scored a perfect 100.
Brac University failed to score any points for International Students Ratio, with DU and Buet both getting only 1.1.