Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, needs more universities in the government sector to cater growing need of students wanting to get higher education.
Presently, there are about half a dozen of government-run varsities in Karachi to educate millions of its young people. The existing facilities are not enough to accommodate the students that pass intermediate exam every year, besides a huge influx of students that come to this city to get higher education.
However, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), as well as the federal and provincial governments is not ready to open new universities. The poor and low income areas of the city lack proper opportunities of higher education. For example, Orangi Town, the largest slum area of Asia, does not have a single university.
A decade back the HEC under Prof Ataur Rehman had planned to open modern universities in collaboration with the friendly countries, but then the PPP-led federal government torpedoed this ambitious project, which proved a serious setback for the higher education not only in Karachi but whole Pakistan.
Moreover, there is dire need to introduce new disciplines of science and technology in existing government-run universities to train higher educated manpower to meet the future needs of changing economy. However, the HEC and other related stakeholders have yet to work in this direction to revolutionise the higher education in Pakistan.
