Are university admissions declining in Pakistan, or are we misreading a shift in students’ demand as a decline?
Our conversations with faculty members and admissions teams at both public and private institutions suggest a more complicated picture. Private universities report steady demand overall, with a surge in computing programs. Many have expanded computer science intakes, launched dedicated AI departments, and are running multiple parallel sections of CS with 50+ students in each.
Public universities note that admissions cycles are still underway. It may be premature to make any claim at this stage. However, they state that their current admission statistics are satisfactory across disciplines so far.
If media is certain that there is a broad-based collapse, they should publish program-wise admissions data (public and private), disclose assumptions behind projections, and surface any conflicts of interest that might shape the policy dialogue.
Admissions in the evergreen programs of medical and health sciences, agriculture, and food sciences remain unchanged.
The clearest soft spot is in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), where our respondents acknowledge a decline in admissions. They attributed this decline to outdated syllabi, conservative teaching approaches, and cultural inertia.
The difference between “decline” and “reallocation” matters. What TV headlines often frame as a system-wide crisis looks more like a redistribution of applicants, including an intensified demand in computing with a focus on BS Artificial Intelligence, BS Cyber Security, BS Software Engineering, and similar fields.
Many traditional programs in Management, Applied, and Basic Sciences, which experienced low enrolment in previous years, have evolved into BS Business Data Analytics, BS Economics with Data Science, BS Biomedical Engineering, BS Data Sciences, and BS Electronics and Computing. Eventually, these programs received more than the targeted enrolments in some universities.
However, a contraction in SSH offerings is visible in programs that have not kept pace with the job market or pedagogical innovation.
University applicants are signaling where they see opportunity. Institutions that refreshed curricula and aligned with job-ready skills have largely achieved their Fall 2025 targets. Artificial intelligence remains a real pull factor.
So where does the “admissions crisis” narrative come from? Part of it is media logic-because dramatic claims travel faster than ongoing trends. But it also intersects with a second storyline about youth disillusionment and the accelerating preference to go abroad for study or work. When these two frames are paired (“universities are failing” + “our best are leaving”), they create a powerful sense of inevitability: the public sector looks broken, and privatization begins to feel like the only solution.
This is where we should ask the hard question: is the narrative of a generalized “decline” being mobilized to justify the privatization of public higher education, especially colleges offering undergraduate programs?
The motif shows up in familiar ways: undermining confidence in public institutions while arguing that only fee-driven, “market-responsive” models can deliver, and promoting asset leasing and public-private partnerships.
If media is certain that there is a broad-based collapse, they should publish program-wise admissions data (public and private), disclose assumptions behind projections, and surface any conflicts of interest that might shape the policy dialogue.
Meanwhile, SSH faculty must not wait for a miracle. The sector’s challenges are real but solvable.
First, SSH needs to align programs and micro-credentials with evolving knowledge industries. That means building joint degrees where the value proposition is obvious-for example, Linguistics + Media & Communication. English Literature should not default to producing only language teachers; there is clear demand in scriptwriting, performance, production, and the broader creative enterprise.
Second, SSH should embed AI, computing, and data literacy within its programs without sacrificing its critical ethos. Methods courses can add corpus tools, basic NLP, Python, and civic data labs to train graduates in both humanities and analytics.
Third, SSH should pursue dual-degree pathways with reputable foreign universities through platforms like the US Department of State and the British Council, while protecting academic standards and student affordability rather than quietly sliding into pay-to-play arrangements.
Fourth, where SSH departments already have strong research niches, they should launch well-structured postdoctoral fellowships and project studios (technical writing labs, heritage-tech, civic tech, policy communication, among others) to promote applicable research and prepare graduates with job-ready skills.
Finally, SSH faculty must step out of their comfort zones. They should also enrol in and complete micro-credentials relevant to their fields and replace them with elective courses in undergraduate programs.
If SSH continues with business-as-usual, closures will be the predictable result, and responsibility will rest with leadership that failed to modernize it. But if universities treat the current moment not as a death knell but as a mandate to transform and evolve, SSH can regain traction while fulfilling its core vision.
The sooner we distinguish redistribution from decline and reform SSH accordingly, the sooner we can keep our students learning here by choice, not leaving by default.
Until then, the decline of SSH will continue to reflect a fall in societal ethics, creative thinking, and civic imagination. Pakistani universities must recognize their responsibility to influence society, industry, and governance. At present, however, the reverse is happening, as our universities increasingly function as supply-chain gateways to the ever-changing job market.
The first author is a Professor of English at Riphah International University, Lahore. He is a lead guest editor at Emerald and Springer publishing.
The second author is an Assistant Professor of English at Govt. Graduate College for Women, Samanabad, Lahore