The new government should priortise inculcating research in universities
LAHORE: Research departments of public and private sector universities in Pakistan have failed to produce quality research work for long. As the motive is to secure the highest number of admissions and the metric to gauge the success of an institution is the number of degrees awarded in a year, the dilemma well explains why graduates here perform poor in the field of research and development.
However, much of the responsibility lies with the Higher Education Commission and the universities’ management. In particular, the latter — despite releasing list of the research produced by universities in different categories — does not do much to inculcate research culture in higher education institutions.
The largest public-sector university in Karachi where thousands study every year has not received its research grant since 2016. Not just that, a fellowship programme initiated by a well-renowned university in Lahore in collaboration with a US-based policy research institute was cancelled only a year after its initiation due to non-availability of monetary grants.
The new government should priortise inculcating research in universities as a chunk of progress and development comes from the research and innovation derived and not only the statistics indicating how many are enrolled in schools or universities.
Shoaib Ahmer
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2018.
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