“The 20th edition of the QS World University Rankings features 1,500 institutions across 104 locations,” the education network said on its website.

This year, the QS introduced three new metrics: sustainability, employment outcomes and international research network. The rankings are compiled annually to help intended students identify the leading varsities in the world.

Three universities from the United States were among the top five universities.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US led the ranking with a score of 100, followed by the University of Cambridge (99.2), University of Oxford (98.9), Harvard University (98.3), and Stanford University (98.1).

Imperial College London stood at the sixth position, ETH Zurich at seventh, National University of Singapore at eighth, UCL at ninth, and University of California, Berkeley at the 10th position.

The fourteen universities that made it to the ranking are:

• Quaid-i-Azam University (ranked 315 with an overall score of 33.4)

• National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad (ranked 367 with an overall score of 30.2)

• Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) (ranked 540 with an overall score of 21.8)

• Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS)

• COMSATS University Islamabad

• University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

• University of the Punjab

• University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore

• University of Peshawar

• The University of Lahore

• University of Karachi

• Bahauddin Zakariya University

• International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIU)

• National University of Modern Languages (NUML)