Foreign engineering universities
May 26, 2021
Within 50 miles of Islamabad, off the main motorway to Peshawar, an exciting new university has emerged. Called the Pak-Austrian Fachhochschule, it represents the materialization of a dream on which I have worked for the last 15 years.
It all started in 2005 when I came up with a proposal to set up a network of high quality engineering universities in Pakistan in collaboration with partners in Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Italy, China, Korea and other countries. As chairman HEC, I presented this proposal to the then president Musharraf and got his full support. I then visited many countries and persuaded 30 leading universities to collaborate in the establishment of seven foreign engineering universities in Pakistan.
Tough challenges
May 12, 2021
Universities in Pakistan have suffered greatly in the last three years because of the misguided policies of the Higher Education Commission and the failure of its leadership to convince the government to provide proper and reasonable funding.
The operational budget of the HEC has remained frozen since 2017, causing huge damage to the higher education sector. It was Rs63.18 bln in 2017-18, Rs65.02 bln in 2018-19, Rs64.10 bln 2019-20 and Rs64.10 bln in 2020-21. The grant per student enrolled has collapsed in dollar terms, which is relevant as research students spend most of the university funds for imported chemicals, solvents and equipment. It was $782 in the year 2013-14, but is now only $413 per student after seven years, although inflation and other factors should have led to its doubling in this seven-year period to about $1600 per student.
Higher education reforms
April 28, 2021
The single most important factor that determines the quality of both undergraduate and postgraduate education is the quality of faculty. At present, only about 25 percent of the faculty members in our universities have PhD degrees, and the ratio of PhD level faculty to student is a dismal 1: 100 approximately. It should be 1: 20, or preferably 1:10.
Clearly, the HEC should have focused on training thousands of bright young men and women at top universities abroad, and then attracting them back through offer of jobs in universities, good salaries, research grants, and access to libraries and equipment. The ex-chairman, Dr Tariq Banuri, did exactly the opposite.
Higher education ravaged
April 7, 2021
The HEC policies during the last three years led to a mushroom growth of 50 new universities, while simultaneously the programmes to develop highly qualified faculty were curtailed.
Some 8,000 scholarships available for PhD level training, worth about 50 billion rupees, were held back by the HEC. This resulted in a sharp drop in the PhD level faculty-to-student ratio and a corresponding decline in the quality of education, since the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate education is directly dependent on the number and quality of qualified faculty available. Thousands of our young men and women were thus needlessly deprived of being trained at the world’s best universities, and then contribute to the development of this nation.
HEC woes
April 2, 2021
The higher education sector has been under the spotlight recently because of the removal of Dr Tariq Banuri. It is stated by some that he was focusing on the quality of education. The truth is the exact opposite.
The three key elements to guarantee quality are faculty, curriculum and examinations. The most important of these is high-quality faculty. The ability of well qualified faculty members to deliver excellent well-prepared lectures that excite young minds and create the urge to learn more is critically important. To do this we need to train our brightest young men and women in top institutions abroad in sufficient numbers.