Good higher education in Pakistan is limited to a privileged few, with enrolment of less than half a million students in university or professional programmes. In contrast, South Korea with a fraction of our population has an enormous higher education enrolment base of 2.7 million students. With sufficient resources devoted to this segment, enrolment in higher education in Pakistan can be ten times the existing number.
For those who can afford it, foreign universities are an option. In Pakistan, Lahore University of Management Sciences and the Agha Khan University are head and shoulders above the rest. These are both private universities. I joined LUMS as its first professor of finance in 1986 at its inception. A grant of $10 million from USAID along with matching funds by private donors got it going. Its current enrolment is about 3000 students. The graduates from LUMS are on a fast track career in the domestic market with multinational companies, or alternatively get admissions to the well-known universities abroad.
The example of LUMS shows that quality higher education is very important for access to the job market. Further, there is a high demand in the domestic market for primary and secondary education of international standards, which would enable admissions to top tier higher education institutions. The entire chain has to be upgraded.
Regarding development of universities and professional colleges, the choices for the government of Pakistan are whether to fund new public universities to meet the demand of university education, or to support the establishment of private universities through public/private partnerships, or a combination of both.
The key question is whether public universities would be able to reach the standards set by LUMS-type private institutions. The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan is trying to reform the existing public universities. These institutions are facing serious systems and governance problems, for which distorted salary structures and untrained teachers and administrators are the major causes.
Whether the HEC will succeed in reforming these institutions remains to be seen.
ABUBAKAR MOAZZAM
Lahore
