The National Skills and Competency Test (NSCT) 2026 results, conducted by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), have laid bare a critical and often overlooked flaw in Pakistan’s higher education system — the wide chasm between individual brilliance and institutional performance.
The data reveals a striking contrast: students securing top national positions are emerging from universities with alarmingly low overall pass percentages, raising serious questions about whether the achievements of a few gifted students can be cited as proof of an institution’s academic superiority.
According to the results, the student who secured the first position nationally with 97 per cent marks belongs to the University of Sindh, Jamshoro. Yet the university’s overall pass percentage stands at a mere 16 per cent. Similarly, three students from the Virtual University of Pakistan featured among the national top achievers, including the second position holder, but the institution’s overall pass rate remained at just 28 per cent.
The student who ranked third nationally scored 95 per cent and belongs to the Abasyn University Peshawar, which recorded an overall pass percentage of only 22 per cent. Two students from the University of Malakand made it to the national merit list, but the university’s aggregate success rate was limited to 30 per cent.
In an even starker case, one student from the University of Swat secured a place among the top performers nationally, while the university’s overall pass rate was recorded at just 8 per cent — among the lowest in the country.
Education experts argue that these results challenge the narrative universities often project by showcasing a handful of outstanding students as evidence of institutional excellence. An analyst said that if a university had thousands of students enrolled and only one or two secured top national positions while the majority failed to meet the required standard, it raised fundamental questions about the institution’s overall teaching and training capacity.
Academics stress that the NSCT 2026 findings highlight the need to shift the focus of university rankings and performance evaluations. Instead of highlighting a few top positions, the primary benchmarks should be overall pass rates, average scores, teaching quality and performance of the majority of students.
