Unregulated education

Whilst the search for knowledge is entirely laudable, finding it in Pakistan can be something of a minefield. The quality of education varies from establishment to establishment and even though there are regulations in place to define academic parameters for universities and colleges, they are widely flouted. Just how widely they are flouted is exposed in a new report from the Higher Education Commission (HEC). There are 140 illegal universities and colleges, the majority of them in Karachi and Punjab. The HEC has been warning the public not to take admissions at unapproved establishments through advertisements in newspapers, which are probably read by a minority. The institutions in question are deficient in terms of properly qualified full-time faculty, laboratory and equipment and the buildings they occupy.

These places are turning out ‘graduates’ whose qualification is in many instances meaningless and worthless. Some universities have been ordered to halt their PhD programmes because of an insufficiency of faculty. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of education, and this situation has not arisen overnight but has developed over many years. It would be interesting to know why a problem of this magnitude was not previously noted and acted upon by the HEC, which cannot have been completely unaware of what was happening. Some of these establishments have been running for many years, which must call into question the quality of their graduates and the validity of their degrees. The HEC has said that it will launch a “comprehensive drive“ against violators — once it has got government approval to do so. The devolution of higher education to the provinces has also made it easier to bend the rules. The government needs to swiftly approve the HEC’s application to go about some essential housekeeping, because anything less looks suspiciously like complicity and the protection of vested interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.

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