Pakistan's universities should form character by design

Previously, I wrote in these columns that character is stamped on us, like the mark on a coin, by what we do again and again. Universities do much of that stamping, although they do it more by default than by design. They receive young Pakistanis at around eighteen, when habits are still soft and the brain is still maturing, and send them out as doctors, teachers, engineers, civil servants and business executives. So how should such character formation begin?

It begins with clarity about who we want to be. On a university campus, it must begin with those who lead, teach and serve, because students learn who to be by watching exemplars among their teachers. The habits students pick up from their teachers last a lifetime.

A decade of research at the Oxford Character Project frames character formation in three words, BE, KNOW and DO: who to be, what to know and what to do. Our universities usually start with DO: rules, codes and disciplinary committees. Yet experiments show "don't be a cheater" reduces cheating; "don't cheat" does not. The Oxford research points to BE as the starting point. Our own tradition has long done the same, joining taleem, instruction, with tarbiyat, the character formation of the person. The lesson is that a university that informs minds without forming persons has done only half its work.

Pakistan's 280+ universities and Degree Awarding Institutions, with nearly two million students, have given the country remarkable people, yet they form character more by default than by design. The 2017 tragedy at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan remains a painful reminder that a campus can provide education and still fail at character formation. Those who teach need it too: a 2023 Nature analysis placed Pakistan among large research-producing nations with the highest rates of retracted papers. Most are withdrawn because of misconduct, such as plagiarism or fabricated data: failings of character, not of intellect.

The Higher Education Commission has answered with courses, most recently Understanding of Holy Quran (Fehm-e-Quran) I and II, one credit hour each, compulsory for Muslim students since Fall 2025. These are welcome, but character is not delivered like content, one credit hour at a time. We can learn from Oxford's research, which names seven strategies that form character: habituation, practising virtue in small acts until it becomes second nature; reflection, looking back honestly on our experiences; exemplars, learning from people whose lives we admire; a shared language of virtue; moral reminders at the moment of decision; systems that make good conduct the easier path; and friendships in which we help each other grow. All seven begin with one decision: who we mean to be.

Abroad, America's Wake Forest University has used these seven strategies since 2017, helping more than 75 faculty build character into their courses. At home, Lahore's Superior University has made "Leading with Character" its guiding philosophy, from top management to students. The lesson: a university becomes what its people decide to become.

Who we mean to be deserves to be written down as a personal mission statement. Once written, a mission statement works as a personal constitution. Like a nation's constitution, it sets the principles against which every decision is tested and serves as a compass when the road is unclear. Research on moral reminders shows how it helps: because we want to think well of ourselves, being reminded of our commitments makes wrongdoing much harder to justify, even in our own minds. But any constitution is only as good as the way it is honoured.

A good personal mission statement must cover every role we play. A student is also a son or daughter; and a rector, a vice chancellor or professor is also a parent, a colleague and a mentor. The accounts officer who releases a scholarship on time teaches fairness as surely as any lecture. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught that each of us is a shepherd, responsible for our flock. Each of us, then, leads someone, and none of us is exempt from the character that leadership demands.

Because our roles compete for the same hours, a personal constitution must also set priorities: which role leads when two collide, and what we will not sacrifice for success. Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) recalled that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), leader of a whole community, served his family at home and went out to pray when the time came.

BE is only the first step. KNOW asks us to understand ourselves under pressure, the people we serve, and where a judgement matters more than rules. DO turns both into small daily acts: one act of courage, a commitment kept when it is inconvenient, a friend with permission to tell us the truth. The Quran puts the test plainly: "Why do you say what you do not do?" (Surah al Saff 61:2).

Toxicity, deceit, exploitation and egoism are all around us, and it is tempting to withdraw and leave change to others. Yet "Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves" (Surah al Ra'd 13:11). Imagine campuses designed for character, where vice-chancellors, professors, staff and students have each written down who they mean to be and what guides them, and then live it every day. Such universities would send Pakistan not only graduates with degrees, but citizens with a decision-making framework. Our campuses will form character either way. Let us form it by design, one personal constitution at a time: written, understood and lived.