Foreign degrees for our local students

KARACHI: Hundreds of young people attended the first day of an education fair on Sunday at the Karachi Expo Centre to explore programmes at foreign and local universities.

Universities from Malaysia, North Cyprus, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and Australia, as well as local institutes, put up stalls to help students find a suitable university.

Ahmer Shah, an engineering graduate from Sir Syed university, went from one stall to another, looking for the best, and the most affordable, university that could help give him an edge in the competitive job market. “There are so many graduates from foreign universities in the market that if you don’t have a degree from abroad, you can’t land a job in a good company,” he told The Express Tribune.Thousands of students try to attend universities abroad and many of them succeed in doing so, said an education consultant at the fair.

According to the managing director of Campus Consultancy Services, Adnan Qazi Ali, the number of students going to the UK has risen dramatically. “I would say that the trend is unfortunate because it shows that we don’t have a good enough education system here,” he said. “In 1999, around 800 Pakistani students were going to the UK for studies but now they number in the thousands.”

He said that Pakistani students did not seem to be discouraged by the high number of visa rejections last year. “Just look at all the students here,” he said, gesturing at the small hall packed with young people. The more popular choices for higher studies abroad include engineering, computer sciences and business studies. However, experts caution that this does not necessarily mean there are jobs in these areas.

The education exhibition will continue on Monday.