Universities in Pakistan have been in dire straits financially since the higher education development budget was slashed by 37% in 2019. A change in government did not signal a shift in priorities as further cuts were announced in 2024 – which were only reversed after severe criticism from Vice Chancellors and other dissenting voices. Lately, three federally chartered universities have requested an immediate bailout package of Rs. 2.5 billion from the government to address pressing concerns – which include payment of salaries and pensions. Another problem plaguing higher education in Pakistan is of course ‘brain drain’. Pakistan’s best and brightest minds choose to relocate to greener pastures – preferably to the developed West. Immigration to countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia has witnessed a marked increase post-Covid. As Pakistan’s economic situation remains uncertain – issues such as budget cuts to higher education and brain drain will continue to present challenges to higher education.
Nevertheless, while it may be convenient to deflect responsibility to external factors for the wretched state of Pakistan’s universities – a closer look at what’s happening within ‘academia’ demonstrates that the thousands of people employed as ‘faculty’ share equal responsibility – if not more – for the current rot. As a young aspiring academician myself, I am familiar with the faculty hiring process in Pakistani universities and my experiences have led me to conclude that there is something fundamentally wrong with how institutes hire candidates for teaching and research positions. The ensuing paragraphs of this two part essay are therefore intended to function as a guide for Human Resource professionals – so that they may filter potential candidates in a way which keeps into account relevant criteria for an academic position at a university.
The first criteria for a university position should be demonstrable excellence in academics. Though it might seem obvious that individuals employed today as faculty must have flourished themselves as students – a casual conversation with a random lecturer will reveal that many faculty members were themselves average students during the course of their studies. In fact, if certain lecturers currently working in different universities were to visit their alma mater – senior professors would fail even to recall their names. I must add that not everyone can excel at formal education and it is entirely possible that a genuinely brilliant candidate might have failed to achieve an exceptional score as students because of a multitude of issues such as financial stress or family problems. Therefore, while excellence in studies is undoubtedly important, it should not be the sole criteria of selection for academic positions.
Human Resource departments also need to assess research acumen of potential candidates. This might seem straightforward – as one can easily tally the number of research publications – but there is more to it than meets the eye. Ever since the Higher Education Commission (HEC) deemed the publication of a specific number of journal articles a compulsory requirement for promotion in faculty positions – Pakistan has witnessed a mushroom growth of low-quality publications, who charge cash from faculty members to get their names credited. I have personally witnessed senior faculty members pleading with students for help in getting their work published and some professors go to the extent of plagiarizing research work of their students.
Dishonesty and lack of integrity are characteristics one would not normally associate with those involved in the teaching profession but inadequate oversight by the HEC and laid-back university administrations mean that faculty members mostly get away with outright cheating. When such a situation prevails, candidates for faculty positions should only be credited for research if their work has been published by a high impact factor or reputable journal. It might be that candidates with good potential in research have not had the time or received the required guidance on how to get published during their time as students. In that case, any published work – not necessarily academic – by the candidate can be evaluated and assessed as an indicator of future research potential. In the case of candidates applying for positions in social science – research potential can even be assessed by looking at published work in reputed magazines and newspapers.
The importance of research acumen cannot be understated since the production of new knowledge is the entire purpose behind the existence of a university. Unfortunately, universities today function as little more than glorified tuition centres – where faculty members teach standard textbooks and don’t drift an inch from their content. The rationale behind this is simple – any deviation from the textbook will expose gaps in the instructor’s knowledge. Faculty members have come to rely on the textbook approach to the extent that some do not even bother to read anything else. To ensure that faculty imparts skills such as critical thinking and exposes students to serious academic literature in their relevant subjects– it is essential that Human Resource professionals assess research acumen of potential candidates. The production of new knowledge – which is the university’s raison d’etre – can only take place if the instructors themselves possess research potential and can think outside the threshold of undergraduate textbooks.
The writer, Ammad Malik, is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS), NUST and is a regular commentator on socio-cultural affairs. He can be contacted at ammadmalik@protonmail.com.