May 15, 2003

The ideal of the university should be the creation of a vigorous intellectual and creative environment, where young minds can find refuge for their studies, writes Anwar Abbas

In recent times there has been a lot of vocal and written criticism of universities in Pakistan. Prominent public men and scribes who have made their mark in various walks of life have given the benefit of their views on the subject. I see such a widespread confusion of thought on some of the most vital educational issues, for which universities have been subjected to adverse criticism, sometimes not on very valid grounds.

However, I am not an apologist for the Pakistani universities as they are. On the contrary, I am very conscious of their manifold defects and shortcomings and realize that their academic standards are far from what they should be. This does not justify educated people attacking universities on every individual grievance. In practical and political life this may be acceptable but in intellectual matters, we must have clarity of thought, a careful and honest formulation of standards and criteria of judgment.

The most common complaint is that the universities do not contribute to the vocational efficiency of the students. They do not provide a remedy for unemployment. They concentrate on ‘useless’ and ‘unimportant’ knowledge instead of equipping the young with how to earn a living. During the past five-and-a-half decades, the number of people acquiring university education has grown very rapidly and the availability of posts in the government have not been sufficient to accommodate all the young people graduating from universities.

The situation has been further aggravated by unparalleled economic distress and depression created by the virtual absence of economic activity on the part of the private sector and developmental activity on the part of the state in recent years. One can understand, though not agree, with the disappointment of the average person at the failure of the universities in making good what to them is their exclusive raison d’etre.

Some people run down universities for their failure in putting specially coached students through competitive examinations for civil service and the post of junior administrators. Those who have been fortunate enough to do so in comparatively slacker times look upon universities with this sneer. Others, who are concerned about industrial and economic progress of the country, bewail the fact that universities are ‘squandering’ their resources on teaching arts and sciences instead of utilizing them profitably by providing vocational and industrial education. For the former, a university is just a magnified coaching centre whereas the latter are unable to distinguish between the functions of a university and the institute of technology. Both are not only wrong but also shortsighted in the pursuit of their avowed objectives.

A university has often been defined as a centre of higher learning. It is the one place in the matrix of a nation’s life where creative intelligence can be freely developed and allowed to work on the emerging problems and issues of contemporary life, as well as the recurring problems of standards and values. So long as university degrees continue to be the pre-requisite for higher services, universities will certainly prepare people for higher services. But to interfere in the freedom of the university work and syllabuses in the interest of services is suicidal to the free life of thought, research and cultural pre-occupations — which should be the concern of every university true to its name.

When students are inspired with the hope of passing certain examinations — and not with the love of knowledge or the intelligent study of human problems and purposes — the entire objective of university education is defeated.

Needless to say, if the standards of university teaching are satisfactory and the examinations are intelligently organized, students will take them in their stride instead of making them the goal of their endeavour. Otherwise it will tend to appreciably lower the standard of true scholarship for the sake of limited and mechanical efficiency in passing examinations and thus do incalculable harm to the university as a centre of intellectual life.

When this unintellectual tradition spreads, if it has not done so already, the ‘crammers’ will take precedence over genuine professors whose concern is, or at least should be, not so much with coaching students for examinations as with cultivating in them a respect for sincerity and truth, a high sense of scholarship and a love and earnestness for intellectual and cultural values. Worldly success like performance in the examination can be an added by-product but should never be the conscious objective of students because it would narrow down their interests and mental perspective.

Many may argue that this is too idealistic, too far removed from the actualities of life, too highbrow, so on and so forth. But then where else would ideals and far-sighted vision find refuge in modern civilization if not in the universities, which are not only centres of learning but also ‘watch towers’ set up by the people to guide them to their destinies? Where else, but the university, do we expect to find recognition of the fact that the understanding of the world through the pursuit of knowledge is an ultimate good in itself?

However, as one who is painfully aware of the poverty and unemployment that plagues the country — and the large undeveloped material and manpower resources — I would not minimize the importance of technological instruction.

It is within the scope of universities to apply knowledge to the larger human and social problems without being directly concerned with its practical application. In fact the growth of scientific knowledge, on which all technical progress and achievement depends cannot take place unless, there are academicians who will go on adding to and enriching human knowledge, without being swayed or distracted by motives of immediate gains. Short-cut methods, which restrict the travail of the intellect and prostitutes all scientific knowledge directly to industrial ends, harbour within themselves the cause of their own defeat.

Another criticism levelled against universities is that they are cut off from the rough and tumble of political life, and carry on their academic pursuits in cloistered seclusion. We often come across complaints of extremist politicians that universities are wasting the lives of youth by keeping them within their shelter, instead of allowing them to partake of political struggle; even when considered educationally, this view is unsound.

Political work requires a maturity of judgment, an experience of people and their problems and a balanced outlook, which we cannot reasonably find in the youthful population of the universities. These students are there to acquire and cultivate these very qualities through academic studies, educative stimulus of the company of mature minds, and the social and intellectual intercourse, which always springs up in a well-regulated company of youth. To divert them prematurely from an educative and invigorating environment into the political field is to transform universities into training camps for political parties.

This should not, however, be interpreted as a plea to separate education from politics. While, on the one hand, the academic atmosphere must not be disturbed by the importation of party passions and prejudices, university education must not be made anemic, lifeless and divorced from reality of everyday life.

The universities must encourage the study of all vital movements of modern thought, including socialism and communism. It must be the centre for learning the theory of evolution and the great fiction that stirs up stagnant ideas about social ills and injustices.

The study of history in the precincts of the university must tell unpleasant truths instead of being content with pleasant half-truths and convenient fiction. Indeed, discussion on religion and philosophy, social and physical sciences must take place for a dispassionate examination and analysis of all great problems and issues of the world.

The ideal of the university should be the creation of a vigorous intellectual and creative environment, where the best and the most creative minds will find a welcome refuge for their study and research, and where a constantly renewed stream of young men and women will be trained to be sent out as the heralds and prophets of progressive social, political and moral values. That, in effect, would be the true spirit of university education.

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