The struggling higher education system in Pakistan is steadily progressing while solely relying on the universities that are already facing numerous hard challenges – particularly from a lack of technological advancement, inadequate funding, bad governance, poor infrastructure, political interventions, lack of academic freedom and a growing competitive environment.
Despite such major adversities, our universities have made remarkable gains in terms of global recognition. It is for the first time ever that 21 academic institutions of the country bagged spots in an edition of the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings for 2022.
It is pertinent to mention here that premier universities ranking agencies hold immense weight when it comes to gauging a university’s progress. For the 2022 rankings, the Times Higher Education team analyzed 108 million citations and 4.4 million research publications.
The Times Higher Education Team’s analysis has referred to Pakistan as one of the world’s fastest improving nations on a range of key metrics. In fact, their view is that Pakistan is one of the top five nations globally for improvements in research citations, international outlook and industry links.
The THE World Rankings 2022 showed Quaid-i-Azam University (Islamabad) at top position followed by Hazara (Mansehra) and Abdul Wali Khan (Mardan) and Government College (Faisalabad) universities.
QAU faculty members in a series of interviews told this scribe that the quality of research work was given top priority by the incumbent VC, in addition to improved teaching skills and developing an international outlook
Following the THE ranking 2022, in which Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) ranked number 1 in Pakistan and among 501-600 in the world university rankings 2022, this scribe critically reviewed the last three years in terms of performance and implementation status of the reformist agenda introduced by renowned educationist Professor Dr. Muhammad Ali (Tamgha-i-Imtiaz) soon after joining the varsity as Vice Chancellor back in 2018.
QAU faculty members in a series of interviews told this scribe that the quality of research work was given top priority by the incumbent VC, in addition to improved teaching skills and developing an international outlook. Catering to the need for fast evolution in higher education around the world, the QAU management took some bold steps to keep pace with global emerging trends in the sector. These interventions yield encouraging results as the QS World Rankings also rated QAU 23rd globally on Citation per Faculty and 324th in Employer Reputation – which is, no doubt an exceptional achievement of the institution.
The Vice Chancellor Dr. Shah ensured that education being imparted or research conducted in QAU must cater to the needs of society. For this purpose, special grants were given to researchers and faculty to produce quality work in their domains. The VC remained successful in establishing a strong link between academia and industry, which resulted in the creation of better employability opportunities for graduates. Such steps turned the varsity into an eminent international educational brand.
Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ali Shah, the university has continued retaining its top slot for three consecutive years and significantly improved its QS ranking from 454 to 378. In the 2022 edition, the institution performed among the top 29% in the QS Rankings.
The QAU VC, who is also chairman of the Vice Chancellors’ Committee, has diligently worked for the reforms in the higher education sector throughout the country. He has stood against what is described as the “educational mafia” and courageously fought for the rights of the academia.
There are major institutional drawbacks that exist in our higher educational system: these include problems with the quality and compatibility of higher education with international standards and industry requirements, fragile institutional structure, and knowledge gaps between cross-culture educations systems.
The VC remained successful in establishing a strong link between academia and industry, which resulted in the creation of better employability opportunities for graduates
To make the country into an educational hub, the government ought to reexamine and set clear objectives for university education, strengthen the educational institutions by giving autonomy to academia, adopt modern technology and produce quality research work through adequate funding and developing regional and international partnerships with emerging higher educational institutions.
None of this will be possible unless a leadership role is given to renowned educationists to form a functional and effective body to oversee the prospects and challenges around higher education in the country. It is, indeed, time for the government to rethink, overhaul and set priorities for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and give its reigns to those eminent educationists who proved themselves in the field.
The upward trend of Pakistani universities in global rankings is very encouraging: we need to sustain and further improve it. There is yet a long way to go!
The author is an independent media researcher and a regular contributor to The Friday Times. He tweets at: @SMubasharNaqvi