Pakistani universities lag behind the developed world in terms of innovative scientific discoveries mainly due to a lack of honesty, passion and dedication among the faculty members. The current research funding practices pose one major problem, but even our moral values themselves may need a serious twist to overcome the situation. With decisive action, however, we are still in a position to fix things in a positive way, to match and perhaps one day surpass our international scientific competition. If we wish to turn our fortune as a nation, we must welcome a choice of international standards regarding funding, teaching and research at our university faculties. We need to stand up and step out of our individual boxes, focus on working together rather than for our own egos, and show each other as well as ourselves that we can rise above petty dishonesty and start doing science for public rather than personal gains.
The significance of science in the current era can only somewhat be realized in the developing countries, whereas the developed world which has been a constant source of innovations for the last few centuries has taken full advantage of their scientific contributions. The modernized countries turned their fortunes by investing more on their research institutes, unlocking their doors to internationals, giving freedom and state-of-the-art scientific environments to the researchers. In return, both their local and migrated scientists worked honestly with passion and determination to produce novel products which have had a notable impact on our lifestyle. This trend continues to rise exponentially in the west. Such policies have attracted a growing community of talented brains from all over the globe who have utilized the provided research facilities. The results are coming in in the form of technological products by industries old and new, such as lithium ion batteries, laptops, mobile phones, exotic vehicles and airplanes, air conditioners and heaters, solar panels, vaccines for humans and animals, medical equipment, medicines, agricultural machinery, food products, water purifying systems, and the list goes on.
I have sought hard to obtain and keep a keen perspective over my home country’s contributions to the fundamental technological innovations made at global laboratories. To my hardest regret, it has become clear to me that these contributions have been few and far between. This article will explore some of the fundamental facts about why the present day’s Pakistani laboratories fail to deliver where many other countries have succeeded.
Many of the faculty members hired at Pakistani universities lack almost any innovative research ideas and also passion towards quality based science
Many of the faculty members hired at Pakistani universities lack almost any innovative research ideas and also passion towards quality based science. Some of the talented minds working there are always under the severe departmental politics which perturbs their focus from the actual scientific work – except for the very few of our shining brains like Attaur Rehman (chemist) and Umer Saif (computer scientist), along with their teams, who tried to spin off our country’s scientific dynamics and are still on this difficult journey. Lecturer to professor, where the direct interaction with students is made, lacks the dedication towards science. These basic government seats need to see a transformation. Unfortunately, many of the university faculty members simply have the intention to earn as much money as they can to make their life styles as luxurious as possible. To this end, many of them are prepared to cross lines and limits that one can only cross thanks to the lack of transparency in our administration and the fact that the people responsible to do so are unwilling to investigate such exaggerated acts.
The author along with many of his fellows has witnessed this situation first hand during his visits to some of the teachers’ offices where the teachers would just discuss departmental politics, land rates, currency exchange, car prices and country politics during their working hours. In contrast, the author has never been under such circumstances while working at international laboratories where the researchers and professors rather spend their time passing around their innovative ideas or discussing the latest scientific results during their job times. Although international professors are also human and they also maintain their life styles, they take care of these personal affairs in their off times.
Regrettably, the picture is also not that crystal clear for those Pakistani PhD holders who completed their post-graduation across the borders via foreign fellowships or scholarships given by the higher education commission (HEC) during or after Musharraf’s era and had the exposure of working at international laboratories. Granted, quite many of them escaped from Pakistan by availing themselves of the HEC grants and utilizing the money of Pakistani tax payers for their PhD studies but never came back to Pakistan with the intentions of getting foreign nationalities and, later on, jobs in the developed world.
Most PhD graduates came back but unfortunately those who did come back often also could not contribute enough to reach the international headlines. They always criticized the funding problems and laboratory facilities in Pakistan which is also very correct but anyhow they have to gather together with open hearts and dedicated brain sets to spin their country’s fortune. Not all researchers need state-of-the-art laboratories. For example, those working theoretically in science and other non-experimental fields can do well with just a laptop worth a few hundred euros while free internet and office is provided at all the Pakistani universities. But unfortunately none of the more resource-intensive fundamental or applications based research seems to decorate the progress roadmap of Pakistan.
Another characteristic of many of the Pakistani supervisors is their very hard claim in front of their students that they know everything and the students have always the fear of not asking or discussing their research plans openly with them. This is another bitter truth that our students are generally grown up with, the mindset that the teachers are always correct and we should not argue with them. Such low values lead to the poor performance of the national universities at large, consequently draining our bright brains towards western shores. On the other hand, during my meetings with renowned scientists and Nobel laureates, they almost never had a problem answering me something even as directly as “I do not know” when a question was asked or an argument made outside of their knowledge. Conclusively, by such an example, one can pinpoint the differences between actual and so-called professors or scientists.
After all these disappointments mentioned above about our university culture, the reader finds himself at the dead end of a blind alley where he desperately wants to find an escape. So the author can give a little hope by floating some of his ideas which could transform the entire Pakistani university system.
Firstly, PhD graduates with high impact factors should be hired at the universities by cross votes made by several members of top level selection committees and two rolling contracts of three years can be made for the selected ones in order to analyze their performance. Then, permanent positions must only be offered to those who have really contributed in quality journals and have been competent enough to spread their knowledge to other innovative minds as well.
Another possible step forward that can also be considered is to internationalize the universities by hiring ca. fifty percent of the universities’ faculty members from abroad, providing attractive salaries and facilities to world renowned scientists. This approach will not only create a healthy competition for the university posts but will also open the eyes of the students who then gain the opportunity to study under international teachers. This way, cultures will be exchanged, students will become more confident, there will be less brain drain and Pakistani professors will focus more on their research to compete with the foreigners. There will then of course also be the need for a very active administration to maintain the research standards at the universities. Such an improvement in the work opportunities will also attract the overseas Pakistani scientists back to serve in their own country while the universities prosper with international scientific environments.
Any individual who is involved in any level of corruption, unfruitful in quality and quantity based research should be seriously investigated by independently formed agencies free of biasing pressure from government politics or any other secular authority. Furthermore, the relationship between the students and the supervisors has to be very friendly and open in order to remove the communication and fear gap between them. This matching of brains will automatically allow the students to argue with their supervisors and innovative ideas will start to flow in. Once our educational sea is clean the students produced by it will also be like the creatures surviving the immense pressures of a deep ocean. Moreover, the novel policies and scientific innovations that come out from our universities and grants will certainly increase in number under governments elected by an honest minded youth. The country’s resources can then be utilized to the maximum by collaboration between quality graduate scientists and industrial businessmen. This approach will not only highly improve our education system but will also boost the country’s economy and thus Pakistan will arise as an important technological exporter in the near future. The author strongly believes that steps such as these will act as the raw concrete required for the construction of wonders that shall last for thousands of years, not unlike the Egyptian pyramids.
The author is a PhD student of Physics at University of Turku, Finland