Why quality research matters?

Quality and result-oriented research work is one of the strongest pillars of universities and policy institutes around the globe. However, quality research is rarely taken up by academic institutions in Pakistan for reasons unknown. As a result, despite a significant number of graduates passing out every year, most of their degrees fail to attract the lucrative domains of national and international industries.

Quality, serious and productive research should be encouraged at least in policy institutes and universities. Education centres often quote, ‘publish or perish’ when it comes to a standard research work. Without this, productive teaching remains a pipedream. Strong and productive intellectual workforce is a result of quality research which could have positive implications for Pakistani institutions in general, and the masses in particular. If these academic institutes work on better teaching strategies, coupled with productive research study, both at local and international levels, our education system will hugely benefit. Some of the plausible measures towards this are:

Pakistani universities and policy institutes need to work harder and become more credible. They need to craft better, innovative and critical research work in order to teach and train young people to be able to become productive and effective citizens of the country. Resultantly, working together to develop the nation.

Subsequently, these educational centres need to plan various workable strategies on how to enhance the standard of both teaching and awarding research degrees. For example, they need to provide basic teaching and research facilities to faculties and researchers. And then, expect results from them. Even publication of a few researches can immensely help raise standards. After all, credible quality research and teaching depend on how faculties and researchers are treated, what facilities they are provided with, the amount of their workload and what type of environment are they working in. Effective intellectual work requires more thinking rather than merely teaching and reading. Thinking for value-addition and innovation would require time and such a practice needs to be encouraged.

On the other hand, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) needs to reorient and play a constructive role by increasing its educational budget and particularly invest in the subject of Social Sciences. Today, much of the complex and difficult problems Pakistan faces can be solved through effective learning of the subject. The HEC also needs to attract more national and international funding, and closely facilitate educational institutions, irrespective of their ranking.

Moreover, our educational and policy centres need to adopt good and workable policies largely practised by the world’s leading academic institutions. There is a need for constructive joint academic collaboration to produce better results to be able to combat the complex problems Pakistan faces. These educational centres need to focus on producing and publishing quality research work in credible publishing houses. This academic endeavour would require time, energy and more importantly the right investment at the right place, which should be facilitated. In fact, teaching and quality research go hand-in-hand. A good, serious and committed researcher can enhance the credibility of teaching rather than teaching with no research work.

Finally, if Pakistan wants to produce a strong and quality intellective workforce, it will need to improve the standard and quality of its educational and policy institutes from where better policies can be crafted. Social sciences needs to be valued and this requires a bigger investment to expect positive results that in turn would not only benefit the overall ranking of Pakistani educational and policy centres, but also help shine the very fabric of this nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2017.

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