| # | University | City | World rank | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kabul University | #0 | 36,158 | |
| 2 | Kabul Medical University | #0 | 12,639 | |
| 3 | Kandahar University | #0 | 11,631 | |
| 4 | Nangarhar University | #0 | 7,229 | |
| 5 | Herat University | #0 | 7,200 | |
| 6 | Polytechnical University of Kabul | #0 | 6,062 | |
| 7 | Kardan University | #0 | 4,711 | |
| 8 | American University of Afghanistan | #0 | 3,951 | |
| 9 | Bakhtar University | #0 | 3,495 | |
| 10 | Kabul Education University | #0 | 2,917 | |
| 11 | Balkh University | #0 | 2,132 | |
| 12 | Takhar University | #0 | 1,844 | |
| 13 | Ghazni University | #0 | 1,491 | |
| 14 | Bamiyan University | #0 | 1,221 | |
| 15 | Salam University | #0 | 1,177 | |
| 16 | Al-Birony University | #0 | 1,126 | |
| 17 | Dawat University | #0 | 1,076 | |
| 18 | Khurasan University | #0 | 987 | |
| 19 | Parwan University | #0 | 977 | |
| 20 | Paktia University | #0 | 939 | |
| 21 | Badakhshan University | #0 | 815 | |
| 22 | Jawzjan University | #0 | 674 | |
| 23 | Bost University | #0 | 493 | |
| 24 | Faryab Higher Education Institute | #0 | 437 | |
| 25 | Baghlan University | #0 | 292 | |
| 26 | Pamir University | #0 | 37 | |
| 27 | Shaikh Zayed University | not ranked | 2,433 |
What the two columns mean
World rank is the university's QS World University Rankings position. Citations are the number of times work published by the university has been cited, as recorded in OpenAlex; it is the measure used to order universities that QS does not rank at all.
The two do not always agree. A large research university can out-cite a smaller one that sits above it in QS, because QS weighs reputation surveys and staff ratios as well as research.