THE World Ranking of Universities (2020 edition) was released recently and it portrays a very grim picture of higher education institutions in Pakistan. We have only one university in the top 500 universities.

The Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad stands at number 401/500 in the world ranking.

The total number of public and private sector universities in Pakistan is above 150 among which 14 universities come in top 1,000 ranking. The indicators on which universities are ranked include teaching, research and international outlook -- which are perhaps not satisfactory in most of our local universities. Institutions like Karachi University, University of Peshawar and many others have had a remarkable reputation for years, but are unfortunately out of the race now.

The key factors responsible for the poor performance of universities are politicisation of higher education institutions and the appointment of underserving faculty members and administrative staff who fail to perform as far as service delivery is concerned.

Universities are supposed to be the hub of research and innovation where researchers work to find solutions to problems faced by society or state. But the quality of research seems no more to be a priority. Rather than encouraging research, it is discouraged in many of our higher education institutions. Furthermore, the quality of research work is compromised without any serious consideration to its repercussions.

It is the time for the authorities concerned to take this report as a wakeup call for a better performance of higher education institutions in Pakistan.

Changiz Ahmed
Turbat

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2019