|
Inaugural Address
Universities are
judged by their creativity
and their impact
on the society excerpts
from the inaugural address
by Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman* FRS
“The key to quality of an
institution lies in the quality of its faculty members. Universities are
judged by their creativity and their impact on the Society”. This was
stated by Prof.Atta-ur-Rahman FRS a distinguished research scientist and
Chairman of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Inaugurating the
first ever National Conference on Medical Editing held at Army Medical
College Rawalpindi from April 23-25th 2007, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman further
stated that the landscape of our universities is now changing which is
evident from the fact that there has been over 40% growth of ISI covered
publications from Pakistan in recent years. Higher Education Commission
is identifying the brightest and sending them to the best institutions
in the world and then attracts them back which has reversed the brain
drain.
“During the last two and a half years, HEC provided two thousand
scholarships mostly for European countries and two thousand five hundred
scholarships were offered for indigenous PhD programmes. At present over
70% of faculty members in our universities, do not have PhD
qualifications with the result that they lack research culture. As such
our major emphasis is now on faculty development. We are living in a
changing world where higher education, science and technology are the
great dividers. The rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. World
is inflicted with poverty, hunger, disease, conflicts, violence and
economic uncertainty”.
Referring to the impact of just one institution i.e. MIT,
Prof.Atta-ur-Rahman said that “MIT graduates and faculty have founded
over four thousand companies which employ over one million people. The
annual sale of these companies is 232 billion US dollars and
collectively these companies are the 24th largest economy in the World.
Socio-economic development is no longer dependent on natural resources
as Knowledge has become the main driving force of world economics which
is the basis of socio economic growth. Industrialization is the key to
high GDP growth through innovation, production of high value added goods
i.e. pharmaceuticals, Information Technology and Biotechnology”.
“HEC has a vision of concentrating on Human Resource Development tapping
in the pool of creativity. Our priority areas are engineering, science
and technology, medical and life sciences, agriculture and education.
Korea had a successful transition from Agriculture to Knowledge-Based
Economy. In 1960, over 50% of their GDP was contributed by Agriculture
but in Year 2000, it fell to only 5-10% whereas over 50% is contributed
by Engineering, Goods and Electronics. Giving details of HEC plan of
action he said that it focuses on faculty development, improving access
and learning, excellence in research which is relevant to national
priorities. We are trying to develop infrastructure, ensuring good
governance and management besides quality assurance. The Key Areas of
improvement are low enrollment in higher education, poor standard of
faculty and lack of training, low quality of teaching and research and
lack of relevant national needs besides poor governance of universities
and there is minimal relevance of higher education to national needs
which all needs to be improved. Apart from ensuring quality assurance,
we are working on providing of linkages to the economy. Our strategy
includes improvements in basic sciences like physics, chemistry,
mathematics and biology besides applied sciences i.e. engineering,
agriculture sciences, biotechnology, medical sciences, pharmaceuticals,
social sciences, economics, finance management, innovation and
entrepreneurship”.
“Higher Education Commission has laid down eligibility criteria for
faculty appointments, introduced Tenure Track System, laid down criteria
for recognition of journals, criteria for college affiliation, quality
criteria for PhD programme, introduced international refereeing of
Dissertation and international publications. University laboratories
have been improved. There has been manifold increase in funding for
research. During the Year 2006-2007 HEC approved grants for 319 research
scientists to attend conferences while seventy three grants were
approved to host conferences. We have guaranteed jobs to fresh PhDs with
higher salary structures under tenure track system. We have approved 75%
reduction of Income Tax for all academics. Under Foreign Faculty Hiring
Programme, two hundred seventy ex-patriot and other scientists have been
attracted to return to Pakistan and serve here”.
“Higher Education Commission has provided over three hundred million
rupees for National Research Programme for Universities. We have also
initiated revision of curriculum and now third revision is in progress.
We have also provided Video lecturing facility. Our Digital Library has
twenty two thousand full text journals available nationwide free of
charge and this facility has been made available to two hundred fifty
institutions so far. For International Video-lecturing programme, high
quality video conferencing equipment is being installed and a series of
international lectures have been planned. Core groups in different
disciplines have been formed. After these initiatives by the Higher
Education Commission, now brightest young men and women have started
opting for careers in Science and Technology subjects as their first
choice. Research publications output of Pakistan has also increased
tremendously as compared to 2001. As regards development funding, during
the Year 2007, we have earmarked a budget of 14.3 billion rupees for 354
development projects. HEC has a total budget of 14.48 billion rupees in
2007. We are funding ninety nine institutions. Almost 650 million rupees
have been earmarked for promotion of research. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman
dispelled the impression created by a few that our universities are
being provided too much funding saying that the annual average grant was
about US$ 7.5 million which is less than 1% of the budget of this year
of any top class university in Asia. For example National University of
Singapore has an annual budget of US$800 million. The budget of our
universities, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman opined needs to be increased at least
fifty fold instead of being reduced. He was of the view that we need to
spend at least 6% of our GDP on education sector and the financial
allocation for Higher Education as per international norms should be at
least 25-30% of total education budget which was currently just 17%”.
“Some of the universities in Pakistan, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman stated are
still in a mess that we in HEC has inherited. However, the situation is
changing rapidly for the better and a silent revolution is taking place.
The real change will be visible by the Year 2008/2009 when hundreds of
PhD level faculty will start returning each year. We have launched an
unprecedented number of systemic reforms which have benefited the
universities”. He reiterated that “the key to success is an outstanding
faculty. To attract that HEC has introduced Tenure Track System, offered
higher grades, research productivity allowance, Income Tax concession,
PhD allowance, research grants and faculty development programmes. We
have also undertaken establishment of new Engineering, Science and
Technology Universities with the collaboration of friendly foreign
countries. At present over hundred billion rupees goes out every year
when Pakistani students go for studies overseas but after the
establishment of these universities in Pakistan, the foreign students
from the world would come to Pakistan for studies” Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman
remarked.
* Nishan-I-Imtiaz,
Hilal-I-Imtiaz, Sitara-I-Imtiaz, Tamgha-I-Imtiaz
Ph.D. (Cambridge), Sc.D. (Cambridge),
UNESCO Science Laureate
Chairman Higher Education Commission and
Advisor to Prime Minister on Science and Technology
Chairman,
Higher Education Commission,
H-9, Islamabad - Pakistan.
E-mail: chairman@hec.gov.pk
|
PDF