Daily Times

With the coming of the new government there is much talk about ‘Naya Pakistan’. The question concerning academics is whether this new way of doing things will extend to the country’s universities or not. To understand how universities can improve for the better, we should understand the nature of the institution called the university.

There are many models of the university. What one can do under the circumstances is to point out a model which, at least in one’s opinion, contributes to making independent-minded, courageous and productive social scientists, scholars of humanities and scientists, ie, academics capable of making a difference in the field of intellectual activity they are interested in. Such a person flourishes in an institution which should be funded by the state or some private donor but should not be subordinate to them. But how can this be possible? Shouldn’t he who pays the piper choose the tune? My answer is that the ideal university is one that does not compromise its independence to any considerations of financial pressure. This was an ideal in the minds of people and has existed in somewhat less than the perfect form. The medieval universities of Europe — Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg — were either set up by the Church or the state (a prince or duke or some feudal grandee). There were times when they became church schools and their feudal patrons arm twisted them from time to time (Henry VIII for instance, when he wanted himself to be declared the Head of the Church of England), but they did manage to exist as a space between the Church and the state. Very often, they succeeded in teaching philosophies which neither the Church nor the state endorsed. The same are now paid by the state and often act as critics of the state, the corporate sector and society.

Even our colonial universities in South Asia were supposed to be autonomous. The state funded them, but the academics did have some degree of autonomy though, of course, the state saw to it that chancellors and vice chancellors were appointed by it and that the syndicate would have a significant number of officials who would ensure that the Professorate would not become too powerful. Yet, they were not directly controlled by prime ministers, chief ministers and bureaucrats. Such people exerted their influence through the syndicate and boards of governors and, of course, their chosen chief executives but not directly through officials. Now this has changed, and this is the first major loss in autonomy for Pakistani universities.

Two things have eroded the autonomy of Pakistani universities. First, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has become too powerful and secondly, the provincial governments have started interfering with the universities. Let us take these two factors one by one. The HEC began as a coordinating body which facilitated universities by offering them funding for research, higher salaries and scholarship. Then it began a subtle mantra of efficiency, quality control, responsibility and so on. Nobody could say these ideals were not worth pursuing but they made control over academia easier. The HEC then started looking into what was being taught and who was teaching it. It laid down rules about which university should offer an MPhil or a PhD and so on. Each one of these intrusions into the autonomy of universities was camouflaged in the idiom of quality control. And, to be fair, since a large number of universities had been initiated, many of them were offering sub-standard courses. Moreover, since there was a demand for producing PhDs, many so-called universities were dishing out fake doctorates. But, why was this happening? It was happening because the HEC’s own policies encouraged quantity. In 2002 when the HEC was made, Pakistani universities were offering a solid two-year master’s course. It was like a normal BA from a British or American university, though perhaps not as rigorous. The HEC insisted that lecturers should have an MPhil to teach M.A students. Solid masters were now replaced with an MPhil of variable quality. One learns far less in a Pakistani MPhil than in a Pakistani Masters programme since the research component in the former is mostly plagiarised (turn it in notwithstanding). Secondly, since universities need PhDs to supervise MPhil students, sub-standard doctorates came to be dished out.

Chief Ministers have started directly supervising the interviews of Vice Chancellors

This was not all. The HEC controls the payments to supervisors so the universities’ Boards of Research have become powerless. The HEC controls tenure track pays (higher than the grade salaries) so the university does not even have its faculty’s emoluments under its control. The HEC approves of every course which is taught, so no faculty member can simply make a course and offer it to students once the university bodies approve of it. No! It has to get a No Objection Certificate from the HEC. In short, there is no academic autonomy left for universities.

To make matters worse, the universities themselves are in the thrall of quality control and one of the most humiliating devices they have come up with to put academics down is computerised attendance. The faculty is bound to stay in the university for a certain number of hours and come and leave at certain timings. This is completely destroying the self-respect and personal autonomy of professors. It was never done in Pakistan and is still not done by our best universities, where I have served. Moreover, in none of the foreign universities have I had the privilege to stay in some capacity or the other—Sheffield, Strathclyde, Texas at Austin, Berkeley, Aarhus in Denmark, Constanz Peace University in Spain, Oxford, Cambridge and Heidelberg — have I seen this insulting manner of dealing with the faculty. I challenge anyone to show me any respectable university that produces world class research, which keeps its faculty chained for a number of hours. Faculty treated like this will simply not be creative nor — if they are doing social sciences — will they be brave enough to produce research which goes against the powers that be.

As if all this was not enough, the chief ministers have started directly supervising the interviews of vice chancellors. Even worse, bureaucrats have started passing orders to vice chancellors as if they rule the university. How did this happen? In the innocuous and laudable name of provincial autonomy. Since the 18th amendment declared education to be a provincial subject, the provincial governments felt they should control the universities. This degradation of universities too has compromised what remained of their autonomy. So, is there a solution to this state of affairs?

Yes, luckily there is. If we divide our universities into three categories we can begin to make a change. Research should be the top priority for universities. They should be provided with such funding as they need, including the highest pays and privileges for the faculty and they should be autonomous. The HEC or any government should have no control over them whatsoever. Of course, the parliament is sovereign and can appoint a committee to deal with their affairs if need be, but that is all. The executive part of the government should not have anything to do with them beyond funding. The syndicate should have no member from the state and the vice chancellor should be elected by the professors.

Teaching universities come in second and should have as much autonomy as the universities had before the HEC was made in 2002. This is midway between the present position and the ideal level to be given to research universities. The lowest tier should be university-colleges and this should be controlled for quality by the HEC. Here what is taught and who is teaching it should be scrutinised, but the provincial governments should not be involved here either. The faculty’s salaries and privileges in both the teaching universities and the university colleges should be lower than in the research universities and the requirement of publication should be less in the teaching universities and optional in the case of university-colleges.

These changes will ensure that those universities which have the best faculty remain autonomous instead of curbing all academic autonomy in the name of quality control or provincial autonomy.

The author is a freelance, occasional columnist

Published in Daily Times, September 27^th 2018.