It is a misconception that "all" foreign degrees are prestigious. The employers have to understand that high grade degrees are few outside Pakistan and every degree cannot be regarded as a good degree. For instance in the UK a high standard educational institutions are categorised in Russell Group. Other than this group a degree could be a normal qualification as good or bad as our own Pakistani one. There is also annual publication of top universities of the world. The employers need to be aware of the standing if they want to employ international qualification. HEC must also publish a list of their own to rate Pakistani universities on a given criteria or standard. One must also keep this in mind that Pakistani professors and lecturers are also qualified from the world class institutions and most of them in summer vacations go back to various universities and deliver lectures. It is further worth noting that in the west every government provides International qualifications assessment services and on their database one find numerous good Pakistani universities meaning that our degrees are recognised for their evaluation.

Mr Khan, your concern is genuine. The talent and students getting degrees from Pakistani universities must be rewarded in an equitable manner. Alas, a number of overseas universities these days churn out quite mediocre 'pass' level students (both indigenous and overseas) where the academic entry criteria is lowered significantly to enroll the students on the strength of bringing in much needed cash revenue.

I completly agree. I completed PHD from Madrassa Mohammed and still get no job. All job go to foreign degrees holders.

The problem is that the majority of the students who are going for foreign qualifications are going for foreign colleges and universities that do not have any reputable standing. This leads to a waste of both time and money of the students and their parents and we a country are still not better off. From my perspective, the need of the day is that we focus of hard work and avoid the "sub chalta hai" attitude. We need to be truly qualified rather than just holding a paper degree in our hands.

As a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, I sincerely feel that the Pakistani Graduates (both professionals and non-professionals), who have come out of the Pakistani Universities, during the last more than two decades, are not generally up to the mark. Because of this, employers and institutions here do not accept their educational entitlements. They have to invariably do some additional courses, to compensate for their lack of academic competence. Needless to say however, that most of the Pakistanis who have come to Canada settle down successfullly. This clearly shows that Pakistanis are generally capable but have been let down by disturbed political and educational environment currently prevailing in Pakistan. Now that the democratic system is once again in practice and the Pakistani education system is on the mend, we should hope that Pakistani graduates will once again be accepted for what they are worth - hard working and competent.

why should an employer care about local degrees or local education when they offer no value to his business. It is not his fault that useless graduates come out of the educational system who are not fit enough to be employed. I am amazed when the writer uses the word "Hard Work". Hard work perfecting a wrong ideology and learning distorted facts which fits the people who want to push the country into medieval times? Such hard work cannot be appreciated by anyone. Hard work need to be done on skills like open mindedness, science technology ( current and not 2 decades old). Anyway who cares about those hard workers? at least not the ones who create education policies. Vikas Arora

as a Pakistani with foreign qualifications as well as local, and having worked for many years in both the worlds, I would say i agree with you, but not with the author of the letter. if you are good at your work AND have a foreign qualification it will make a difference otherwise not! i have seen many with foreign degrees who dont go far in PK cuz they r not good enough. Pk is competitive, and has its own needs and norms that you can not learn abroad. that said, Pakistani education lacks a lot. in my opinion the most basic is the fact that unlike Canada, UK or Scandinavia where population is smaller, we are quite many. it is our strength as well as our weakness. the aim of the matriculation should be that one is capable of earning ones living and is able to think about the world around him rationally. only a small percentage of the school finishers go to university. Like in the US, only the brightest should be allowed in to graduate studies. and graduation must include research, didactic learning alone at this level narrows ones mind. I hope when some of the so called leaders think about education they consult the real thinkers of our country, the likes of anwar maqsood, shoaib hashmi and so on. And that too before they are gone.

Forgot to mention Sweden ( in particular) and Norway as well ...

I totally agree with you. As an employer, I would certainly give preference to a foreign qualified MBA because I know he/she would at least have a better grasp of the subjects and most likely speak better English. Sadly, I have seen too many MBAs who can not even put two sentences together without making basic mistakes. I must stress though that it was not always like this but it has deteriorated so much that it makes me cry.

True

Build a nation with huge faith in local qualifications?. Well, the quality of "local qualifications" has gone down continuously ever since the independence. Most countries do not accept our local qualifications and to be honest we know that most people coming out of our universities are way below their counterparts in many other developing countries. No government in Pakistan has ever paid any attention to it. But then, why are we surprised?. We have done with education exactly the same thing we have done to our road transport, health, PIA, Steel Mills, KESC, WAPDA and so on.

The faith in local qualifications is declining because of rejections by employers. Why not, don't we read and watch how students in examination hall cheat to gain their results - how can such students fulfill the employers satisfation in their company