LAHORE: The number of postgraduate students has been on the rise since 2010-11 in the Punjab University (PU).

Up to 747 students were enrolled in MPhil and 382 in PhD programmes for the 2010-11 academic session while the number of MPhil students increased to 3,714 and that of PhD to 1,524 in the 2014-15 academic session, said a spokesperson on Tuesday.

The PU has recently topped among all Pakistani universities in the international ranking of more than 20,000 universities of the world.

Conducted by Cybermetrics Lab,the largest publie research bodyin Spain belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the ranking puts the Aga Khan University on the second and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) on the third, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) at the fourth and the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) at the fifth position in Pakistan.

The Gomal University, Dera Ismael Khan, has secured the sixth,theUniversityofEngineering and Technology, Lahore, seventh, the Islamia University, Bahawalpur, eighth, the University of Peshawar ninth and COMSATS Institute of InformationTechnology, Islamabad, 10th position.

Among universities in South Asia, the PU has been ranked 15, Aga Khan University 17, NUST 21, LUMS 23, AIOU 40, Gomal University, Dera Ismael Khan, 53, UET, Lahore, 56, Islamia University, Bahawalpur, 58 and COMSATS Institute of Information Te chnology, Islamabad, 65.

Having 126 centres, the CSIS issues `Webometrics Ranking of World Universities` every year evaluating more than 20,000 universities throughout the world.

According to the new ranking, the PU obtained the 1899th position and now among the top 10 per cent universities of the world.

LANGUAGE COURSE: A three-month Chinese language course will start from Aug 24 at two institutes of the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) as a pilot project.

The course would be introduced in other institutes of Tevta across the Punjab after the successful completion of pilot project at the Government College of Technology, Railway Road, and Government Technical Training Institute, Gulberg, Lahore, said Authority chairperson Irfan Qaisar Sheikh on Tuesday.

The course would be open for Tevta graduates as well as general public. The capacity of each class would be 50 students and the minimum qualification would be secondary school certificate or Matric.