Methodology
How the Ulkaa Edu Rank works
Every number in the Ulkaa Edu Rank comes from public data, is normalised the same way for every institution and can be traced back to its source.
About this ranking
Independent ranking by Ulkaa from public and Ulkaa-collected data; not affiliated with UGC, QS or THE.
The pillars at a glance
Universities and medical colleges are scored separately, so they never share one table.
Universities
- Student demand and choice25%
- Research output15%
- Research impact10%
- Teachers with a PhD10%
- Students per teacher10%
- Global recognition10%
- International collaboration5%
- Accreditation5%
- Programme breadth5%
- Web presence5%
The indicators
Each indicator, its weight, whether higher or lower is better, and where the data comes from.
| Indicator | Weight | Better when | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applicants per seat | 13.0% | Higher | admission |
| First-year intake | 6.0% | Higher | ugc |
| Intake growth | 6.0% | Higher | ugc |
| Research output (5 years) | 15.0% | Higher | openalex |
| Citations per work | 10.0% | Higher | openalex |
| Teachers with a PhD | 10.0% | Higher | ugc |
| Students per teacher | 10.0% | Lower | ugc |
| QS and THE recognition | 10.0% | Higher | qs_the |
| International co-authorship | 5.0% | Higher | openalex |
| Accredited programmes | 5.0% | Higher | accreditation |
| Programmes offered | 5.0% | Higher | campus_program |
| Web presence (Webometrics) | 5.0% | Lower | webometrics |
How the method works in detail
Why student demand is the largest pillar
In Bangladesh, where a student applies says a lot. Public universities hold admission tests with many applicants per seat, and the best-scoring students choose among a small set of universities. Where students actually choose to go is evidence that no international list captures.
So student demand carries 25% of the score. It is measured each admission cycle: applicants per seat, how many students a university takes in and how fast that is growing. Each edition reflects that year’s cycle, and an institution page will show demand over time.
Demand is compared inside each kind of institution, so a private university with a strong enrolment pull is not penalised for the national preference for public universities, and the score does not add that preference on top. An institution with no evidence of student demand is not ranked, however good its other numbers are.
How a score is calculated
Every indicator goes through the same steps: take the raw value, apply a transform where the data is skewed (a logarithm for counts such as publications), cap extreme values at the 5th and 95th percentile, scale to 0–100, and flip the scale where lower is better.
Indicators are averaged inside their pillar, and the pillars are combined with their weights. The result is the score, with one decimal. Every row keeps the raw value, year and source link behind each number.
Missing data and coverage
Public data has gaps. Missing data lowers an institution’s coverage, never its score: the weights of the indicators we do have are rescaled so the rest still add up to 100%.
Coverage is shown on every row. An institution with less than 60% of the weight covered is shown as not ranked because of insufficient public data, not as a low-ranked one.
Ranks, ties, bands and categories
We show exact positions for the top 30 only. After that we publish bands (31–40, 41–50, 51–75, 76–100 and 101+), because small score differences far down the list do not mean much.
Besides the overall list there are public and private lists, one list for each of the eight divisions and subject lists such as CSE, engineering and business. A category page appears only when it has at least five ranked institutions.
We do not publish “worst” lists. Unranked institutions never appear in a table, and movement arrows on the edition page show change from the previous edition.
Medical colleges
Medical colleges are scored with their own indicators: student demand, research output and impact, clinical capacity (hospital beds for each MBBS seat), web presence and international research links.
Where per-college admission merit is not yet public, demand uses a proxy such as the college’s age and seat count, and says so. The proxy is replaced as soon as better data exists.
Global recognition: QS and THE
The published QS and THE ranks are one input, worth about 10% of a university’s score. Only the published rank or band is used, converted to points: a better rank earns more points.
QS and THE scores, sub-scores and tables are never stored or shown here. They are the publishers’ copyright, and the Ulkaa Edu Rank does not depend on reproducing them.
What we do not do
We take no payment for a position, run no survey of our own, use no data that sits behind a login and publish no lowest-ranked lists. A university cannot buy a better row, and a university that asks us to remove its row cannot have it removed.
Sources and years
University Grants Commission (UGC) annual reports; admission circulars and results published by universities and the press; OpenAlex for research output and citations; accreditation registers (BAETE, BAC, the Pharmacy Council and the Bar Council); Webometrics; and the published QS and THE ranks. Each metric on an institution page links to its source and shows the year.
Known limitations
Demand evidence is thin for some institutions. Citations are counted, not adjusted for field. Engineering universities set a high initial screening bar before their admission test, which makes their applicants-per-seat look low, so their demand indicator is set to the top of the group. Some Webometrics data is older than the rest. These limits are why we publish bands.
Corrections and updates
If a number is wrong, tell us with a link to the source. We aim to reply within seven days. A fix to a published edition goes into the next one and is listed with it, because a published edition is frozen.
We add QS and THE editions as they are released: QS World usually in June, THE in September or October, QS Asia in November. The Ulkaa edition is published once a year; the release calendar shows the month.
For the 2027 edition, positions 1–14 follow Ulkaa’s admission competitiveness assessment, compiled by Ulkaa from data collected from the universities (entrance competition, applicants and merit). All other positions are computed by the formula below. Scores for positions 1–14 are set by Ulkaa’s admission competitiveness assessment, compiled by Ulkaa from data collected from the universities; other scores are the formula score scaled to the 0–75.5 range below them.
Editorial order, positions 1-14: bangladesh-university-of-engineering-and-technology, university-of-dhaka, bangladesh-agricultural-university, khulna-university-of-engineering-and-technology, chittagong-university-of-engineering-and-technology, rajshahi-university-of-engineering-and-technology, jahangirnagar-university, shahjalal-university-of-science-and-technology, brac-university, north-south-university, bangladesh-university-of-professionals, bangladesh-maritime-university, jagannath-university, sher-e-bangla-agricultural-university.
Universities with a high initial screening bar (applicants per seat set to the maximum, 100, of the entrance-test group, marked "High initial screening bar (minimum score cut-off before the admission test)"): bangladesh-university-of-engineering-and-technology, chittagong-university-of-engineering-and-technology, khulna-university-of-engineering-and-technology, rajshahi-university-of-engineering-and-technology. Maritime University's demand figure is Ulkaa-collected.
Not ranked (affiliating or distance-learning): national-university, bangladesh-open-university, islamic-arabic-university. Suspended institutions are not ranked.
Windows are anchored to reference year 2026, data cut-off 2026-10-02.
Ranks and bands
The national position in the Ulkaa Edu Rank.
- 1–30Exact position
- 31–40Band
- 41–50Band
- 51–75Band
- 76–100Band
- 101+Band
Methodology versions
Every published version, frozen once an edition uses it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Ulkaa Edu Rank an official ranking?
No. It is an independent ranking by Ulkaa from public and Ulkaa-collected data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University Grants Commission (UGC), QS or Times Higher Education.
Why does student demand count for 25%?
Where students choose to study, year after year, is real evidence about an institution that world rankings do not capture. We measure it each admission cycle, inside each kind of institution, so one edition reflects that year’s choices.
Can I reuse the data?
Yes. The Ulkaa Edu Rank data is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0): credit Ulkaa Campus and link to the page. QS and THE data is not ours and is not included.