Democracy and higher education

It is not uncommon to hear grievances about the lack of seriousness, or spending, or both on the government’s part when it comes to higher education. Most concerns are legitimate. But the relationship between governance and higher education is not one-sided. Just as we should argue for, and demand vigorously, the government support for higher education, we should also think about what kind of higher education system do we want that produces the leaders who care about the values most dear to us.

The relationship between the higher education system of a country and the leaders it produces is both intimate and far reaching. The great debates in the halls of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as other institutions, have shaped the worldview of British politicians. The broad-based liberal education model has shaped the various features of US political and judicial system, its foreign policy and economic models. Even when things go bad in governance (as many would argue is the present situation in the US), the education system provides hope that the system will return to equilibrium.

The power of educational system has also been used to create darkness amongst us. Afrikaans institutions in South Africa played a pivotal role in creating and rationalising apartheid. In Pakistan, the Zia years made a deep impact on the institutions and the consequence of those policies continues to shape our reality of the day.

Seven decades since independence, and after various derailing coups, we have our work cut out for us. As we celebrated another 23^rd March with a vision for the future decades, our educational institutions are still struggling to find their voice and identity. More significantly, it remains unclear how these institutions ought to shape the future of our democracy. This is particularly important as we are close to celebrating the second smooth democratic transition in our history. It is therefore critical for the academic community to think as to what our courses and curriculum ought to do, and what tools do we want to equip our graduates with.

This is a long debate, that needs to happen in the classrooms, through seminars and during debates among faculty, but there are three things that we ought to give to our students. First is a sense of tolerance, pluralism and inclusion that build upon the richness of our society. Our democracy has to sustain the pressures of exclusion and hatred. Pakistan has suffered gravely in the last decade from the forces of hate, and to inoculate against such forces we need to have curricula that celebrate diversity and encourage rational debate and discourse. An avenue to create tolerance is often through curriculum that emphasises humanities, social sciences and art, for all students, including those in science and engineering.

Second, a sense of history that provides a rich perspective on not only where we have come from, but also on various global movements and events that have shaped (for better or worse) the world we live in. Courses that focus on great books from our tradition and other traditions will produce students who are grounded in history and reflective about the future. Finally, critical thinking, exposure to complexity and working across disciplinary boundaries will produce students who are ready for new challenges that come our way, from the emergence of new diseases to policies that respond to a rapidly changing global political environment. None of this means that we do not want disciplinary depth. We ought to, most definitely, create disciplinary and intellectual depth, but should do so in ways that cultivates a sense of history, humanity and citizenship.

The goal of a higher education system is not just to produce good political leaders, but to produce citizens who have the capacity to shape society and choose good leaders. A system of higher education, that is uniquely ours and creates tolerance, a sense of history and the ability to deal with local and global complexity, will produce a democratic governance system that will stand up to challenges, whether from within or outside society.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2018.

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