The crisis of higher education in Pakistan
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With Pakistan in the grips of a series of political, security and economic crises one after another, no aspect of national life has remained unaffected. The most important parts of this national experience, and ones that in fact help endure some of the pains of the crises, are health and education. As Pakistan celebrates its diamond jubilee of independence this year, it should reflect on all that has gone wrong with education in general and higher education in particular. One is at a loss to find any useful or useable information on the website of the national Higher Education Commission about the state of higher education in the country. The commission which is tasked with funding, maintaining standards and implementing education policy at the tertiary level has itself been an arena of contestation of almost a year between an ousted chairman and the federal government on the one side and the vice chancellors of the public universities on the other demanding more resources, institutional autonomy and an end to unnecessary interference in their affairs. There are three dimensions to the unending crisis of higher education in Pakistan— governance, funding and accessibility.
Higher educational institutions, colleges and universities have gradually proliferated over the decades, both in public as well as private sectors. The country had one university, the University of the Punjab in 1947 out of sixteen under British colonial rule in the subcontinent. Today, it has about 100 universities in the public sector and about as many established by private associations, trusts and companies with multiple campuses in different cities around the country. Almost ever district of Pakistan today, with the exception of Balochistan province, has at least one university. The fourteen years’ degree colleges have increased from 35 to 1,500, but the population of the country has also increased substantially from 35 million to 225 million people, bringing health and education under tremendous stress.
Some critics of rapid expansion of higher educational institutions have argued that quality has been compromised, as instructors with better academic achievements generally refuse to relocate to far off places. This may be true, but it is the incentive system: Capturing a good place in the academic hierarchy early in their careers and being close to one’s hometown that also drives many aspirants to universities located away from major cities. My own observation, as an academic who visits these universities quite often, is that district universities in the public sector have engendered a big, invisible social revolution in terms of enrolment of girls who would not go to major cities for lack of finances or parental approval. In many such universities, about half of the student body comprises of female students in every major discipline in the arts and sciences. Also, students from poor sections of society find these district universities more accessible, easy to get admission into and financially affordable.
While the higher education enrolment numbers in Pakistan appear to have impressively increased from 276,000 in 2001 to 1.29 million in 2014-15, it is still 9 percent of the eligible young population compared to 28 percent of India’s.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
The real challenge is the governance of higher education at two important levels for the Higher Education Commission or commissions, and internal university administrations. Pakistan’s public sector universities were better funded, managed, and organized when it had a single commission at the federal level. After the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment and education becoming the exclusive domain of the provinces, first the Punjab and then the Sindh governments established their own higher education commissions. In practice, the public universities have lost autonomy with bureaucracy and the political bosses regulating them from the appointment of vice chancellors to the approval of internal university rules and regulations. The universities are now subject to deeper political influence through politically appointed vice chancellors (with some exceptions) than in any other time in Pakistan’s history.
Funding is a huge issue. Public universities receive only about 40 percent of their current budget, 34 percent from federal and 6-8 percent from provincial governments. They have to meet 60 percent of these expenses by generating revenues through student fees. It means a higher burden on middle class families and squeezing the poor out of the system. According to a UNESCO source, only 1.5 percent percent of the poor can complete their tertiary education. For the current financial year 2022-23, federal funding is estimated at about PKR 30 billion for the recurrent and 41 billion for development expenses for public universities, while vice chancellors have protested and keep demanding PKR 102 billion.
Accessibility is the real issue, as only higher and professional education can bring people out of poverty. While the enrolment numbers appear to have impressively increased from 276,000 in 2001 to 1.29 million in 2014-15, it is still 9 percent of the eligible young population compared to 28 percent of India’s. Deficiencies of the public sector have promoted proliferation of private universities and colleges for profits, except the very few run by charitable trusts. It is a class issue now, as the wealthy and upper middle classes prefer private institutions to public ones, as social and teaching environments of the latter have deteriorated. Another reason is that the ruling class, starting with expensive preparatory English medium schools, aim for universities in the West. With so much neglect, inadequate funding and bad governance, the graduates of public universities continue to lag behind others in the job market.
- Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Twitter: @RasulRais
