- Is the government being penny-wise pound-foolish?
The government has slashed the budget of the Higher Education Commission by half, granting it only Rs 59 billion against a demand of Rs 103.5 billion, while the development budget granted it was Rs 28 billion against a demand of Rs 55 billion. While it is true that departments and organisations do not get their wish list approved in entirety, this is a form of national suicide. One result is going to be an inability pay salaries of foreign faculty, who have been identified as a key component in improving standards at universities. Instead of getting research conducted through the distribution of research grants, the HEC will not be able to pay salaries to faculty that joined on the assurance of the HEC paying them. It is possible that this may be a cost-cutting measure. If so, it is short-sighted to say the least.
One does have Prime Minister Imran Khan making all the right noises, the latest example being his remarks at the signing of the MoU on Wednesday between Doublestar MSD Tire & Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service Ltd. He told the audience that the economy had stabilised, and now the government would focus on creating jobs for the youth. In the knowledge economy of the immediate future (which many would say has already arrived), how youth are to be prepared for the new job market without having world-class universities, and how such universities are to be produced without getting high-quality faculty, maybe the Prime Minister does. It would help if he told someone else the secret, because no one has been able to square the circle of imparting good education without good institutions.
One would have thought that a government elected because it had received the youth vote would have paid more attention to providing jobs to young people, and paid more attention to their concerns, such as creating quality in tertiary education. The HEC’s measures are already cautious and pennypinching; instead of subjecting university faculty to accountability, and casting envious looks at their salaries, the government must make sure the HEC is adequately funded. As important, it must ensure that the government meets the salary commitments made to foreign faculty.