–Only four universities make it to the top-1000 list
ISLAMABAD: The recently-released world university rankings by Times Higher Education (THE) has contradicted the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) claims of bringing about revolutionary changes in the education sector, as only four Pakistani universities were able to make it to the list.
Last year, seven Pakistani institutes made it to the list which includes top 1,000 institutes of the world. Pakistani universities’ poor performance is a bit shocking as the spending on the education sector has increased compared to previous years.
According to the ranking, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) is among the top 500 universities, while two Pakistani universities, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and the National University of Sciences and Technology, lie in the 601-800 band; and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad is in the 801+ group.
Education experts said Pakistan has much to do in the education sector to bring the educational standard at par with the world, as, at the moment, Pakistan is not even ready to compete with regional institutions, world universities aside.
In this year’s rankings, Pakistan fell far behind its neighbours; 60 institutions from China, 30 from India and 11 from Iran were on the list.
Talking to Pakistan Today, educationist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy said that such rankings use irrelevant criteria for assessing the universities, as these rankings judge universities on the basis of the quantity of research; hence it is a futile exercise. He said that all these rankings are being issued by the institutions and individuals who have no knowledge about Pakistani universities.
The rankings have no credibility and the academics pay slight attention to it, he said, adding that for instance Saudi Arabia hired some professors who were living in America and never visited these institutes, but they showed affiliation with these universities and were paid large amounts in return.
He said that the only criterion of ranking is the number of the research publications, which are worthless because these papers are either copied or lack thorough research and this practice is widespread in institutions worldwide.
The former director of QEC, Dr Umer Hayat, said that the speedy process of writing, publication, and research in different fields is good but its pace must be kept under critical analysis.
He said that till the introduction of the HEC’s standards, it was fine with the legacy; but now the faculty members are keener to be admired as well as accepted in their field due to their publication numbers. “The HEC is insisting for patents and new research, but the trend is not welcomed as every faculty member is overburdened by the number of publications, administrative responsibilities and the research culture is also not developed,” he added.
Commenting on the issue of world ranking, Umer said, “I am sorry to say for this purpose HEC, universities and faculty members are responsible. Universities and the HEC need to grow in productive sense, rather than producing trash in the form of degrees without knowledge and research without applicability and replication,” he said.
HEC Media Director Ayesha Ikram said that the universities ranking is conducted by different organisations, which have set up their own criteria; though these are very good because they are doing this at a global level and it’s not reflective of regional universities’ qualities.
She said that during the last 15 year, the HEC accomplished some remarkable results: in 2002 there were 800 research publications, which has reached to 12,000; there were 59 universities but now there are 188 universities.
Ayesha said that as there were 32 per cent girls opted to higher education that has now reached 48 per cent. She said that all these steps are being taken to bring improvement in the education sector.
Ayesha hoped that such ranking could create a positive impact on our universities if taken seriously, as then the universities would try to improve their performance.
Even though a decline in the ranking is a cause for concern, but we can improve our ranking if HEC and universities keep on with the rigorous work, she said, adding that rankings are of no use if the real impact of knowledge creation is absent.
