ACADEMIC dishonesty has long plagued higher education in Pakistan. While attempts have been made to reform the sector, there is much ground to cover before Pakistan can develop a higher education system in line with international academic standards. The Higher Education Commission is primarily involved in overseeing the tertiary sector; while the body does take action against academic malpractice, as its chairman said at a news conference on Wednesday, critics feel the HEC must do more to crack down on scholastic dishonesty, including plagiarism, and universities’ tendency to hide evidence of academic wrongdoing by erring members of their faculty. The HEC announced it had closed 31 PhD and 26 MPhil programmes in public and private universities countrywide over the last 18 months as these programmes were not meeting minimum standards. Over 60 programmes for these research degrees were also prevented from inducting new students for the same reason. While it is welcome that programmes not meeting quality standards have been suspended, we must ask why these varsities were allowed to conduct the courses and admit students if they did not meet the criteria. And, what will be the academic future of the affected students?

Unfortunately, much like the state of primary and secondary education, higher education here has become a business, with many set-ups operating out of bungalows and offering advanced ‘degrees’. Even many established universities cannot claim to be producing scholars of international standing, who have a firm grip on their specialisation. Perhaps the key issue is quantity over quality, where numbers are given preference over substance. We are comfortable with churning out MPhil and PhD ‘scholars’ without much concern about the quality of their scholarship. For example, publishing in journals of questionable repute is common, while in some cases even highly placed academics, such as the VC of the Federal Urdu University, are alleged to have been involved in plagiarism. Our universities must focus on genuine research and upholding standards of academic excellence, or risk being labelled diploma mills that mass-produce ‘scholars’.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016