Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
It is a sad fact that our universities are still no match to the universities like Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale or Stanford which always make it to the prestigious list of world’s Top 10 universities.
When it comes to choosing a university for a Master’s degree or PhD or even an undergraduate programme nowadays, Western universities are greatly preferred. One dreams of studying at Harvard or become a Yale graduate, but, why people don’t look up to our universities?
A number of students particularly mention the superior infrastructure in Western universities such as better research facilities, state-of-the-art libraries and well-equipped laboratories. These things, according to most students, play a significant role in the quality of education. Students are attracted by the libraries in universities, the commitment and professionalism of university staff, and the dialogue-based pedagogy.
Unfortunately, the quality of education in Pakistan is marred with a declining trend. Most public sector colleges have substandard education and insufficient infrastructure. The universities, too, lag far behind the Western universities. An immediate reason for this imbroglio is the lack of academic freedom. Our universities are not completely free of administrative control or, at least, bureaucratic influence. The chancellor is still a high state functionary. In case of provincial universities, it is the provincial governor while for the federal universities it is the President of Pakistan. The vice chancellor is his nominee that means the bureaucrats have a major say in his appointment.
While the provincial governments exercise administrative control over university affairs, financial control is exercised by the Centre. But, there is no coordination between them. Most often the governments order to increase student intake without increasing the budget to provide facilities for them. The powerlessness of the administration before the bureaucracy creates hurdles in smooth functioning of a university.
As many as seven Pakistani universities made it to the 2013 list of top 250 Asian universities while three other universities among the top 200 world universities in agriculture and forestry. Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad (QAU) secured 119th position among top 250 Asian varsities while National University of Science and Technology Islamabad (NUST) was declared 120th, Agha Khan University Karachi (AKU) between 151-160, Lahore University of Management Sciences Lahore (LUMS) between 191-200, University of Engineering & Technology Lahore (UET), University of Karachi and University of the Punjab Lahore between 201-250 are now in top 250.
On the contrary, World’s most prestigious universities are autonomous and free of all influences of bureaucracy. This makes academics confident, independent and fearless.
Most Pakistani universities are staffed by the people who cannot be considered the cream of the nation because most top achievers opt for civil service or go into engineering or medical profession. Being a professor is not the first priority since no incentives are offered. Teaching is not a lucrative job in Pakistan. Hence universities do not get the best human resources. To aggravate the situation, there is lack of proper teacher training centres. The incompetent and inadequately trained teachers are unable to impart proper knowledge to the students.
On the contrary, the professionalism of the professors and their absolute commitment are the highlights when we see the Western universities.
‘The professors here are committed. They are constantly involved in the process of enlightenment and impart the best of their knowledge to the students. I see in them the spirit and skill of teaching,’ says Ahsan Riaz, a Pakistani PhD student at the University of Toronto.
There exists an anti-participatory environment in our universities. Where Western institutions have a positive attitude and an overall environment conducive to student support, Pakistani universities are bound by low teacher-student ratios leading to lack of individualized interaction among teachers and students. Students, therefore, are unable to push themselves for an effective learning environment.
Muhammad Ilyas Khan, a Leicester PhD student says in ‘A comparative glance at universities in Pakistan and the UK’:
‘This reflects a philosophy of education which is really based on constructivism and where the professor does not consider himself the source of all knowledge but works with the student in a two-way process of knowledge creation and development. This is, besides others, the feature that universities in Pakistan need to adopt, if we in fact want our universities to be real centres of knowledge, creation and innovation.’
Most of the Pakistani universities are teaching centres, rather than being research-oriented institutions. It is generally believed that universities are supposed to teach and not to conduct research. The staff members see themselves as lecturers and not as someone who eagerly involves himself with the students in quest of knowledge. They merely disseminate information produced by others without doing creative, original research themselves. The key behind success of Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge or Yale is extensive research in every field. The students who are engaged in research are more in touch with latest developments often making genuine discoveries and receiving recognition for their work.
Along with recruiting trained teachers, it is high time Pakistani universities update their syllabi as well. The memory’ based education must be replaced by conceptual study. Furthermore, the stereotype system of evaluation must be reinvented. Pakistan has abundance of talent. This state has produced, and will be producing, prodigies like Arfa Karim and Asiya Arif.
Modern ideas, science, technology and the idea of education on scientific lines need to be introduced. The education sector should be provided autonomy as well.
