Daily Times

The University Grant Commission was turned into the Higher Education Commission (HEC)in 2002. A move that has reshaped higher education in the country with a significant contribution. Since then, the number of private and public universities/DAIs have increased manifold, from 74 in 2001 to 187 in 2018. Student enrolment was at 276,000 in 2001-02, now it is more than 1.5 million. The funding to universities has increased 1500 per cent since 2002. Statistics shows that about 30 percent of the faculties in universities are PhDs holders (estimated at 15,000) and there is potential to accommodate more PhDs in future. In addition, the HEC has awarded about 19,000 scholarships for foreign and indigenous PhDs since 2002. The Pakistani universities are producing 700 percent more PhDs compared to pre-2000 statistics where a total number of 3,281 PhDs were produced since the start of Pakistan.

Some of our universities are now recognised as some of the leading academes in the world, including NUST. The quality of their research is still debateable, but we should stay optimistic as Pakistan’s research culture is still in its infancy.

Though the number of HEC PhD scholarships has decreased significantly since 2008, but overall the HEC has developed a research culture in Pakistan. It has created such an environment that students are looking for scholarships themselves in foreign countries without direct assistance from HEC. In addition, several students are opting for PhD studies within Pakistan. Many students are opting for PhDs to find a good career in academia.

One perceived feature of the award is that it brings the concept of doing PhD among the common folk. Students belonging to all strata of society are among the awardees, including the poor and lower middle class. The previously perceived monopoly on such scholarships was abolished, where such awards were distributed among the elites or universities employees. After successfully completing their PhDs, the scholars became a source of upward social and financial mobility for their families. More importantly, there is a sizable portion of female PhDs in the lot, which makes them not only financially dependent but also a source of uplifting their family status. This created a ‘new’ middle class across Pakistan, which is not restricted to an ethnicity, sect,or locality. Many of them have PhD from foreign countries or often visit other countries.

Along with the creation of middle class, one can see a knowledge shift towards PhDs. Before the wave of these PhDs, most of the Op-Eds of leading newspapers were written by bureaucrats (in-service or retired), retired armed personals, lawyers, retired judges, and journalists. However, now, one can notice these PhDs writing Op-Eds in many national and international dailies/newspapers. In addition, they share their perspective in various other formats like blogs, journals, social network sites etc. This is an encouraging thing for contributing policy discussion on domestic issues of the country. These academicians have strong connection with common masses during interaction with all sorts of students on campus. They can represent the sentiments of commons citizens on different platforms and can play a role in solving domestic problems through their writing. One can expect “objective writing” from these scholars based on proper research. One other feature of these researchers is that writing for newspapers is not their primary source of income as they are paid well in their teaching profession; so, one may expect some unbiased opinion from them.

Though the PhD fraternity is exceedingly small in the composition of the new middle class of Pakistan, they can be very influential

Though the number of PhDs fraternity is exceedingly small in the composition of the new middle class of Pakistan, however, they can be very influential. They have a big audience, nonetheless, in the form of their students in classes or social media networks. The only thing these scholars must do to stop talking to each other only, instead talk logically and analytically about the domestic issues on different forums.

The writer is a PhD and can be contacted via: naimat@uop.edu.pk

Published in Daily Times, August 9^th 2018.