Higher Education Commission (HEC) replaced the University Grants Commission in 2002, and its focus was on increasing access, relevance, and quality of higher education. There was a considerable fund flow for introducing reforms in the higher education sector, introducing professional programs and integrating knowledge, skills, and tools of the 21st century at undergraduate as well as post-graduate level. Most of the policies worked in the desired manner, and some Universities were able to make their presence in different world rankings.
Initially, there were limited private sector universities and degree-awarding institutions in the country; it expanded after an increase in the demand for higher qualifications in emerging disciplines by the employers. The industrialists and other people in business analyzed the potential of profit from a one-time investment. They all required was nothing but a charter in the form of the Act from the provincial or federal government with NoC from HEC as per cabinet criteria. They have enough money to hire faculty, purchase required land, and required bank balance for compliance of the cabinet criteria. The one-time investment continues to grow with time, and further enrollment is assured by offering degrees in Business and ICT disciplines with fascinating nomenclature.
As the government has limited resources for establishing Higher Education Institutions in the country, therefore it supported private sector for expanding network of campuses in different cities. This resulted in establishing new higher education institutions. Some of them lack professional faculty, proper infrastructure, books in the library, and lack of laboratory facilities. The unique culture of briefcase professors was introduced, and people who are engaged as full-time faculty at one institution are on visiting roles in other institutions. No matter they can teach adequately or not, but they are expected to satisfy the student by awarding good grades to them because student tuition fee is a major source of income for these institutions.
Although HEC is taking different measures for assuring the quality of graduates as well as of research carried out at these institutions, even then, low-quality graduates are being produced. To meet HEC criteria for appointment of a faculty member, which requires some number of publications apart from qualifications and experiences at each level, i.e. Professor, Associate Professor, etc. therefore, a new system of hiring starts. One method adopted is collaboration for including names in mutual publications, no matter their specialisations are the same or not. HEC asks for publications in the relevant discipline, and relevance is to be determined by the experts hired for recruitment purposes. If four teachers collaborate to write at least four articles with co-authorship of other group members, they can easily reach the required number of publications for the post of professor. To stop this type of practice, HEC has directed editors of HEC recognized journals to include contribution details of each author for reflecting their actual contribution to the research.
There is another major challenge of readymade research available through ghostwriters mostly hired by some of the faculty members to meet the publication requirement. The online writing services available through the internet also further deteriorate the situation of original publications. There are several sites which provide a platform to students, faculty members and researchers to place their assignment or research demand on the website through dummy account and experts around the world would bid for the desired task. The negotiations are carried out for timelines as well as other terms and conditions are decided. The payment is made through credit cards or different modes of payment.
HEC and Universities are also facing difficulty in classifying original research from some of the low-quality research. The primary source for such research is the use of publicly available data over the internet for preparing pseudo research. Only experts can detect such academic fraud. Although plagiarism is eradicated to the level of cut-paste but rephrasing and rewriting the ideas is going on due to a lack of check and balance system at Universities. Most of the time, if publication can pass some electronic detection system, then it is considered as genuine research. Whereas in developed countries opinion of peers is given more weightage than any report of plagiarism tool. It is also observed that the plagiarism report generated by electronic services are not appropriately interpreted. Sometimes, genuine researchers are harassed by highlighting similarities from their own earlier drafts, which is submitted for plagiarism detection. Again, without having a robust system in place at all Universities as per HEC and University rules, HEC cannot do much for improving the quality of research.
These unethical practices can be dealt with if all stakeholders work closely for developing a quality research culture. The students at the undergraduate level should be trained for consulting, writing, and citing text from different sources. The regular interaction of faculty and students in groups or as an individual is essential at both levels, i.e. undergraduate and post-graduate. The use of social media for teaching-learning and research purposes is going to help them to spend time on the positive side of this medium. There is also a need for having workload or task management policy for faculty members-so that teaching and research activities may be carried out in the desired manner. The Universities are required to provide enabling environment to faculty members and students for teaching-learning and research activities. There are multiple ways to encourage genuine researchers to continue their exploration efforts in this age of misinformation and disinformation. All these activities should be following the University’s own rules and regulations as well as in line with HEC minimum standards set for the purpose.
The writer is deputy director, Higher Education Commission