Higher Education Reforms in. Pakistan

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Higher Education Reforms in

Pakistan

Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS

Ph.D.(Cambridge), Sc.D.(Cambridge)

Former Federal Minister of Science & Technology, IT/Telecom and Higher Education (2002-2008)

COMSTECH Pakistan

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Requirements for Rapid Progress



 Human capital with knowledgewith knowledge and skills

and skills



 Science & Science & Technology

 Innovation/Entrepreneurship Infrastructure Infrastructure and incentives to innovate

and incentives to innovate

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Pakistan---An Exciting

Beginning-

Political Will !

 My appointment as Federal Minister of

Science & Technology (2000), Federal Minister responsible for Higher Education (2002-2008)

 6000% increase in budget of Science &

Technology

 2400% increase in budget of higher

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4 4

Key Challenges in Higher

Education

Quality • Standard of Education, Faculty & Research Access • Enrollment in higher education Relevance • Addressing the needs for

Socio-Economic

Development of Pakistan

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STRATEGY

1) BASIC SCIENCES

Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology) Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology)

2) APPLIED SCIENCES

(Engineering, Agricultural sciences, (Engineering, Agricultural sciences,

Biotechnology, Information Technology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Pharmaceuticals, New Materials,

Pharmaceuticals, New Materials,

Communications, Renewable Energy) Communications, Renewable Energy)

3) SOCIAL SCIENCES

4) ECONOMICS, FINANCE, MANAGEMENT 5) LINKAGES WITH INDUSTRY

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Challenge: How do we attract our

brightest to Education/Research

?

 Pakistan has 85 million below age 19

(54% of population) !



 Both a Challenge and an OpportunityBoth a Challenge and an Opportunity



 It is the brightest among them who must It is the brightest among them who must

provide the leadership in all fields provide the leadership in all fields--- ---education, S&T, Government

education, S&T, Government



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Attracting the Brightest

!



 11) Excite young minds about the wonders

that science !

 2) Select and train the Brightest in top

universities abroad

 3) Attract them back--- by creating an

enabling environment :

 Salaries

 Research Funding

 Access to Literature/ Instrumentation  Critical Mass—create clusters !

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Attracting the Brightest

!

 Change in Salary Structures/Benefits

Under new “Tenure Track” system salaries of Professors raised to over US $ 5,000 per month(equal to US$ 7,000 per month after tax concessions)---several times more than Federal Ministers in Government !

Performance based system

 75% Tax waiver for University Teachers

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Attracting the Brightest !

Science is Fun !!!



 Rewarding Talent Rewarding Talent ::

Young Productive Scientists have Young Productive Scientists have higher emoluments than more “senior” higher emoluments than more “senior” professors (Research Productivity)

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Reversing the Brain Drain !



 Under Under Foreign Faculty Hiring ProgramForeign Faculty Hiring Program

over

over 600 600 eminent scientists and eminent scientists and

educationists have been attracted back educationists have been attracted back--- ---after living most of their lives in the West after living most of their lives in the West



 ClusteringClustering---45 45 mathematicians, mostly mathematicians, mostly

from Eastern Europe, all clustered in one from Eastern Europe, all clustered in one institution

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Training the Brightest

Training the Brightest!!

 Massive Foreign scholarship programs



 Nearly 4,000 awarded to date (Mostly for Europe)Nearly 4,000 awarded to date (Mostly for Europe) 

 World’s largest Fulbright Scholarship program for World’s largest Fulbright Scholarship program for the US

the US

 Over Rs US$ 1 Bln being spent on

8,000 Foreign Scholarships

 National Competitions --- Selection by

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International Linkages



 US$ 100,000 research grant to each US$ 100,000 research grant to each

returning scholar

returning scholar --- conditional : 3 conditional : 3 -- year year collaboration with foreign university

collaboration with foreign university (potentially 4000 Linkages)

(potentially 4000 Linkages)

Strong Joint Research Initiatives with USA Strong Joint Research Initiatives with USA

Linkages established with top Western established with top Western Institutions

Institutions --- 50 with British Universities, 50 with British Universities, many others

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Training the Brightest!



 Massive Massive postdoctoral trainingpostdoctoral training program program launched

launched for all local PhD.s 

 ALL local PhD students now have ALL local PhD students now have opportunities to study abroad on

opportunities to study abroad on sandwich sandwich PhD programs

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14 Distribution of Approved Project Cost Distribution of Approved Project Cost

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Using Technology to Leap-Frog!

 Pakistan Educational Research Network

 Digital Library Program

 PAKSAT 1 (Pakistan’s Educational Satellite)

 Pakistan’s International Video-conferencing Network

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Spread of Internet Services in Cities &

Towns of Pakistan

Information Technology

1050 2000 580 29 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 Year

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Internet user growth

Internet users -200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 Ja n-95 Ja n-96 Ja n-97 Ja n-98 Ja n-99 Ja n-00 Ja n-01 Ja n-02 Internet users Start point Today June 2000: 130,000 Oct 2006: >12 million

Actual users more than 12

Million!

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Plummeting costs….

Cost /E1 -20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 Mar -00 May -00 Jul-0 0 Se p-00 No v-00 Ja n-01 Mar -01 May -01 U S $ Cost /E1 Start point Today June 2000: US$ 87,000/E1 August 2001: US$ 6,000

October 2004 : US$ 3,800

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PERN

Pakistan Education & Research Network

Jamshoro Tandojam Nawab Shah D.I.Khan Topi Khairpur Khuzdar Abbottabad

Core Network Nodes 03 Total Universities 56

(16 OFS, 22 DXX, 17 DRS, 1 VSAT)

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Digital Library

 25,000 full text

journals—nation-wide,free-of-charge!!!



 OverOver 11..22 millionmillion articlesarticles downloadeddownloaded inin 20062006 !! 

 AlmostAlmost 300300,,000000 endend usersusers trainedtrained nationwidenationwide 

 One Window Search Engine developed with One Window Search Engine developed with

Lund University Lund University



 Web of Science, Web of Science, ScifinderScifinder Scholar, EMBASE, Scholar, EMBASE,

IEEE,

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Digital Library



 Pakistan’s Pakistan’s National E-Books Program

launched in September 2007 launched in September 2007

 Provides free nation-wide access to over

40,000 text books and monographs

 Over 220 international publishers



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Paksat 1

Ku Band

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Virtual University



4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT

4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT--1) TV

1) TV

Channels for content delivery (License

for 2 granted)



Satellite Earth Station



2 Recording Studios



Potential for providing high quality

training in remote areas of Pakistan

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International Video-lecturing

Program / Distance Learning

 High quality

video-conferencin

g

equipment installed

 Series of international lectures

(nation-wide) by top professors from leading universities in USA, Europe, Japan etc.

 MIT Mirror Website for access to Open

Source materials established ((http://mitocw.pern.edu.pkhttp://mitocw.pern.edu.pk))

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Quality Enhancement Cells

Quality Enhancement Cells are presently Quality Enhancement Cells are presently

functioning in 30 public sector universities.15 functioning in 30 public sector universities.15

QECs will become functional in the public sector QECs will become functional in the public sector universities in the year 2009

universities in the year 2009--10.10.

Internal Quality Assurance System (IQA)

Self Assessment Manual Self Assessment Manual



 Higher Education Commission (HEC) has Higher Education Commission (HEC) has

developed methods for assessing the quality developed methods for assessing the quality of academic programs

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External Quality Assurance (EQA)

Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)



 QAA regulates and facilitates the Quality QAA regulates and facilitates the Quality

Enhancement Cells (QECs) established in Enhancement Cells (QECs) established in Universities

Universities



 QAA arranges capacity building training QAA arranges capacity building training

seminars and workshops on regular basis seminars and workshops on regular basis



 QAA develops policies and guidelines to QAA develops policies and guidelines to

assure that the quality of higher education assure that the quality of higher education



 QAA serves as master trainer to build QAA serves as master trainer to build

capacity in professionals in QECs capacity in professionals in QECs



 QAA is a monitoring and regulatory body to QAA is a monitoring and regulatory body to

focus on quality focus on quality

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Accreditation Councils

Accreditation Councils Established by the Accreditation Councils Established by the

HEC: HEC:

1.

1. National Computing Education Accreditation National Computing Education Accreditation

Council (NCEAC) Council (NCEAC)

2.

2. National Agricultural Education Accreditation National Agricultural Education Accreditation

Council (NAEAC) Council (NAEAC)

3.

3. Accreditation Council for Teachers Education Accreditation Council for Teachers Education

(ACTE) (ACTE)

4.

4. Pakistan Business Education Accreditation Pakistan Business Education Accreditation

Council (PBEAC) Council (PBEAC)

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Quality Criteria developed by HEC



 Eligibility criteria for appointment of Eligibility criteria for appointment of

Faculty members Faculty members



 Criteria for award of Criteria for award of M.PhilM.Phil/PhD/PhD 

 Institutional Affiliation CriteriaInstitutional Affiliation Criteria 

 Tenure Track System (Faculty Tenure Track System (Faculty

Appointments) Appointments)



 Plagiarism PolicyPlagiarism Policy 

 QA FrameworkQA Framework 

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Glowing International Reviews

Glowing International Reviews--

----A Silent Revolution

A Silent Revolution



 World BankWorld Bank 

 USAIDUSAID 

 British CouncilBritish Council



 “Nature“Nature””----2727thth November 2007November 2007--- “The “The

Paradox of Pakistan” Paradox of Pakistan”



 ““NatureNature”” ----2828thth August 2008August 2008--- “After “After

Musharraf” Musharraf”

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Results



600% in ISI abstracted publications and

1000% increase in citations over last 4

years



Young men and women have started

opting to adopt careers in S&T subjects

as first choice



Landscape of Universities has begun to

change

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0 1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2001

2003

2005

2007

2008

Publications

Publication

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10 Year Citation Trends of Pakistan

2

Source: ISI Web of Science (Databases=SCI-Expanded, SSCI, A&HCI) 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

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OIC Rising Stars

33 Sr. No. Country Field

1 Tunisia Agricultural Sciences 2 Nigeria Biology & Biochemistry 3 Iran Clinical Medicine

4 Pakistan Computer Sciences 5 U Arab Emirates Economic & Business 6 Pakistan Engineering

7 Iran Environment / Ecology 8 Nigeria Immunology

9 Pakistan Material Sciences 10 Pakistan Mathematics

11 Tunisia Microbiology

12 U Arab Emirates Pharmacology & Toxicology 13 Pakistan Plant & Animal Sciences

Source: Science Watch.Com

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Ph.D. Output Growing by 50%

annually !!

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Investment in HRD Pays Back a

Million fold !



 12 Students trained under our scholarship 12 Students trained under our scholarship

program formed an IT company in Islamabad program formed an IT company in Islamabad

---won a contract of US $ 250 million (Rs 20 billion) in competition to major international in competition to major international companies

companies



 Innovation determines ProgressInnovation determines Progress---but you but you

must create and nurture the Innovation must create and nurture the Innovation Workers !

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Expert Assistance

Needed

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

 CurrentlyCurrently implicationsimplications ofof BolognaBologna ProcessProcess

are

are underunder nationalnational levellevel consultationconsultation



 InternationalInternational bestbest practicespractices areare beingbeing

reviewed

reviewed && underunder processprocess ofof implementationimplementation::

1

1.. QualityQuality AssuranceAssurance SystemSystem 2

2.. DiplomaDiploma SupplementSupplement FormForm 3

3.. AccreditationAccreditation SystemSystem 4

4.. QualificationQualification FrameworkFramework 5

5.. EstablishmentEstablishment ofof DirectorateDirectorate ofof DistanceDistance Education

Education 6

6.. CrossCross BorderBorder EducationEducation 7

7.. PhDPhD CountryCountry DirectoryDirectory

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Higher Education

Science

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