In the days of yore, teaching was prioritised over research. This was before the establishment of Higher Education of Commission in 2002. Promotion of research was left at the discretion of universities. In 2002, the HEC pushed for the establishment of a research culture in universities. In 2018, a seminar research project entitled “The University Research System in Pakistan,” was developed by the British Council, Knowledge Platform under the aegis of HEC. The report looked subterraneanly into universities across the country. It stated there were around 45,000 faculty members in over 193 accredited universities. About 3,000 were the colleges affiliated with public universities. On the other hand, since the establishment of the HEC, from 2002 to 2012, 4,820 PhD degrees were awarded to scholars. This is how briskly the HEC had taken the stout stabs at establishing the research culture in the country.
Now, let’s move to look into the present environment. The trend of research in Pakistani universities is now in its full swing. All and sundry have now woken up to the significance of the research, but the question remains are people really practical to research, such as contribution, teaching and learning and so forth? Here, the question entails three main variables like contribution, learning and teaching. Let’s analyse first the research contribution in/from universities of the country.
Does the contribution of research in/from universities upsurge in an exact manner? Are faculty members working to contribute research towards society?
All and sundry recognise that the utmost and the top-notch purpose of the research is to first find the issues in society; go deep in the issues to diagnose reasons and their extent, and then bring panaceas for these problems. The research papers must include reasons behind their creation. This way, such papers can benefit society. I have gone through around 150 papers, about social issues, published in different HEC recognized research journals and have failed to find the real solutions.
The purpose of doing research is to benefit society but it has now supplanted with career advancement. Then, what is the use of research if it cannot ameliorate the nation in all walks of life.
Almost exactly, there is another bitter truth behind the execution of research in the universities i.e. the people are paid to write less than no time the papers for those who paid them. Doing this malpractice can certainly aggravate an already pitfall-drenched situation. On the first hand, those who developed the papers in the exchange of money have nothing to do with the research and those who made pupils, friends, or even others on money will be unable to teach the research accordingly. Thus, this type of heinous contribution of research takes together, to crumble them, two remaining variables i.e. learning and teaching.
What is the use of research if it cannot ameliorate the nation in all walks of life!
Those who got their contribution, in the exchange of money, published and came across this to teach can inflict the perils on the teaching system and the students, on the other hand, cannot learn the things and they will do the same their teachers did before. This string of nick-stricken teaching and learning system will get enlarged. And then the system in the universities will lead the results in low yield of productivity of research. Just imagine how this only absurd exercise of getting the papers written on the exchange of money bangs all the three variables of contributing, teaching, and learning the research in the universities. What was found by the study, which unswervingly touches this point of view? It stated that, in developing countries, there is still a strong teaching system but weak research function.
In the current scenario in the research culture, Pakistan lags much behind. Paper publication, as per the results of a study, is not more than 13 per cent of total faculty members throughout the country. As compared to male researchers, in a study, it was found that female researchers in all countries except the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries constitute relatively a very little proportion. This issue is the bleak side of the research culture of Pakistani universities.
The faculty members have been observed by studies less serious towards the research in the universities. As far as the students are concerned, they take up the projects to work on as before degree awards under the compulsion and this cannot bestow students with enquiry skills and teachers with leading skills of executing research in the bargain.
The faculty members must not be trifocal i.e. teaching, community service and researchers. They must be divided into these three factors in the universities so that they can work properly in their areas of interests.
To coax the scholars to accept as true that the research has other dedications beside their goal to contribute for promotion in their jobs is the need of today. Journals should be launched as many as possible.
The paper contribution should be made necessary part throughout the sideline of MPhils and PhDs but with individual authorship. Policies should be revised every three months after looking into the prevailing situation in the institutes and should also be made easygoing against the publication of articles and journals accreditation.
The writer is a member of the Editorial Board of a Russian Research Journal, “Bulletin of Science and Practice.”