Daily Times

Professor Hoodbhoy’s article on the ‘Professor Mafia’ in Pakistan generated a never-ending debate. And then there was another piece, some solutions to Pakistan’s professor mafia, which highlighted the importance and necessity of ISI-indexed publications. At face, it looks good that people are coming forward with suggestions to improve Pakistan’s fragile higher education system. But what makes the reader wonder is that why do they all neglect the basics of education-related problems in Pakistan.

Before taking any position, one needs to look at the system from different angles. First, how can one expect improvements in higher education system when government schools and colleges are in the worst condition? Even today, most students come from this background. Without improvements at school and college levels, any effort to bring improvements in the higher education system is destined to fail.

Second, there is nothing wrong with dreaming. But one needs to realise that Pakistan is Pakistan, not the United States of America. Any attempt to cut-paste American style will be just another folly. Universities in Pakistan are seriously undermanned. On average, student-faculty ratio is 50:1 whereas in the US it’s 10-15:1. This problem exacerbates when professors don’t have TAs to help them with assignments and quizzes of students especially in the Punjab College-style inspired institutions where professors have to evaluate students approximately 10 times in a semester.

The HEC deliberately and systematically has ruined social sciences in Pakistan — not to mention turning this into a field catering to average students. Self-acclaimed promoters of science and technology have ignored the importance of social sciences

Third, the authorities in Pakistan need not be restless. They need to wait and let the system work for some years to see improvements. Both teaching and research are important. Focusing only on research means that the HEC is compelling professors to think about what benefits them rather than what is good for the students. In this case, professors have to choose between benefiting themselves and benefiting others. Expect them to be human and conscious about their own good. They would do what they think benefits them. Teaching would no longer be their priority. Prescription: teach your children at home and send them to universities when they are capable of publishing in impact factor journals because attending universities would not do any good to them.

Fourth, to dig deep, one needs not to underestimate the difference between so-called social and natural sciences in the context of Pakistan. HEC deliberately and systematically ruined social sciences in the country — not to mention that the latter became a field dedicated to average students. Self-acclaimed promoters of science and technology in the country ignored the importance of social sciences. Hundreds of students were sent abroad to pursue PhDs. Several of them did their PhDs in agriculture. Do we see any change even in agriculture? At least, I don’t because farmers in my district still use the same techniques they saw their elders using in the fields.

Similarly, after a planned and in fact precipitated collapse of social sciences, how can HEC and ‘others’ expect scholars of both fields to be equal? Most of the irregularities such as tit-for-tat and publishing with students exist in natural sciences.

How many prestigious journals with impact factor (acceptable to HEC) publish work on South Asia? In addition, there are several other problems. For instance, it’s difficult to publish on China and Asia-Pacific (that’s a hot spot nowadays) when you don’t work in Chinese language or when you don’t quote Chinese sources. Even if you do by any means, HEC does not recognise several good journals. Equally possible is that you cannot claim a publication against a research report you manage to publish from Belfer Centre, Kennedy School. Given these opportunities leading the professors to a cul-de-sac, none would dare to put his hard work in a dustbin. In this case, local journals serve as a refuge.

Let’s assume that all professors in political science/international relations/strategic studies are incompetent — of course for some, whose concern is only publishing at Harvard, MIT, Oxford, and Cambridge without appropriate prep, they are. There are well-understood limitations in Pakistan even for the academicians. Nonetheless, people here in the US who work on Pakistan in particular and South Asia in general do read the work Pakistani professors produce. But why would someone care about this fact before producing to an op-ed to fill the belly of paper? Generalising is bad, but it’s terrible when it precedes a policy.

At present, lecturers teach three or four courses, while Assistant professors teach two or three courses in a semester. And they can’t stop teaching due to their research commitments. Look at profiles of famous American and British professors in any field, they teach one or two courses in a year. And it is equally possible that they are not teaching to focus on the research works they have to do.

Academia is not a lucrative filed in the country by any means. Rarely do parents want their children to become professors. Mafia is probably a strong word to describe them especially in times when professors are handcuffed publicly. I’m certainly not defending the dark side, but professors deserve respect that unfortunately they don’t enjoy in Pakistan.

The writer is PhD candidate at Area Study Centre, Quaid-i-Azam University. He’s currently a visiting fellow at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He can be reached at shoaibm37@yahoo.com

Published in Daily Times, August 4^th 2017.