Tier-2 Cities Deserve World-Class CS Education Too A city most of Pakistan's own tech sector couldn't place on a map built a globally ranked computer science department. The excuse that it can only happen in Lahore or Islamabad just ran out

Abstract

The 2026 QS World University Rankings by Subject placed 35 Pakistani universities across roughly 180 entries — a genuine sign of progress, and one worth taking seriously. Look at where those universities actually sit, though, and the pattern is unmistakable: the highest-ranked institutions remain heavily concentrated in Islamabad and Lahore, with universities in Peshawar, Multan, and Bahawalpur described in the same coverage as only "gradually emerging." That phrase — gradually emerging — has been true of computer science education outside Pakistan's two or three biggest cities for as long as I have been teaching it, and it is long past time to ask why "gradual" is the ceiling we've accepted.