A university is known by the faculty it keeps. Another yardstick to measure the standard of any university, proverbially known as the highest seat of learning, is its research activities and research publications. But a research project is worthless if it does not contribute to what is referred to as 'knowledge growth' these days.

What renders a research project worthless is (among other things), as any student of research knows, its inability to discover new facts, explore new territory and break new ground in the subject. And one of the factors that hinder new discoveries is “repetition” of research projects.

Until recently, research in Urdu had become notoriously repetitive and especially research carried out in the universities to earn a degree was so repetitive that in many cases more than one dissertation was written on the same topic. In most of these cases, one researcher working at a university did not know that another person was carrying out research on the same topic, with the result that two dissertations and two degrees were awarded simultaneously on the same topic. Since most of the research papers and theses written for a degree in Urdu are not published, in some instances research was carried out and a degree was awarded on a topic that had already been explored by some other researcher years ago and the new research did not expand the frontiers of knowledge already known and charted.

Many scholars had voiced their concerns and advised the academia to enlist and publicise the topics of research in order that the repetition could be avoided. Prof Dr Moinuddin Aqeel was the first to carry out research on Urdu research, publishing in 1985 his survey titled 'Pakistan mein Urdu tehqeeq' in Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu's quarterly research journal 'Urdu'. Later, it was published in book form and helped researchers and students alike in determining what topics to choose for research. In 1989, Dr Moin-ur-Rehman published his book 'Universityion mein Urdu tehqeeq', enlisting a large number of dissertations written to earn degrees in Urdu from universities. Though a helpful book, it still did not cover the entire body of dissertations. But it encouraged many others to prepare such lists and a number of lists were published, helping the research scholars and their supervisors to some extent.

A few years ago, Dr Suhail Abbas Baloch compiled a list, published by Multan's Bahauddin Zakaria University, which tried to compile theses comprehensively on the basis of such lists. Despite enlisting some 2,000 dissertations, it left out as many of them. In an article of mine published in the May 2007 issue of 'Akhbar-e-Urdu', the National Language Authority's journal, I had suggested that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) get a comprehensive list of dissertations prepared and launch the same on its website. Some other scholars had also made the same suggestion.

I don't know whether somebody at the HEC heeded our advice or it was already on the anvil, but the good news is that a comprehensive and all-encompassing list of over 4,000 research dissertations presented at 81 universities around the world to earn an MA or MPhil or a doctorate in Urdu language/ literature has been prepared and published in book form and is also displayed at HEC's website (www.hec.gov.pk). The book titled 'Jamiaat mein Urdu tehqeeq' or Urdu research at universities, has just been published by the HEC and is truly a monumental work as it enlists Urdu research works done at as faraway and as unlikely places as Canada, Belgium, the UK, France, the US, Spain, Turkey and Egypt — not to mention India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The remarkable feat has been achieved by none other than Prof Dr Rafee-ud-din Hashmi, the renowned research scholar and former head of the Urdu department at Lahore's Punjab University. Having taught Urdu for about 35 years and having supervised a large number of dissertations, Prof Hashmi is now working as 'HEC Eminent Scholar' and is as busy as ever with his academic and research projects. His experience and vision show in the book's introductory note as he deliberates on research methodology and research in Urdu. Not only students of research but even many a supervisor can learn a thing or two from this erudite intro. In a nutshell, he is greatly pained to see the standards of research falling and has been in greater stress in recent times as the standards have come even further down of late.

Though the HEC's stringent measures and insistence on maintaining certain criteria has helped the matters a lot during the last few years and a sudden spike in the registration for doctoral degrees has also been noted, a lot remains to be done. The HEC may well chalk out a criterion for research supervisors and examiners too, as these are the weakest links in the chain. As is the practice in foreign universities, a professor should be sidelined if he or she does not carry out further research. While the HEC has imposed certain restrictions on the promotions of university teachers, it should also impose a ban on appointing professors as research supervisors in case they themselves have not done any research in recent years. It is a pity that those who have not published a single research paper in decades are given the responsibility of guiding research students in Pakistani universities. And still we hear a lot about raising the standard of research.

Dr Jameel Jalibi in his preface to the book has very rightly mentioned that “the book makes one feel the agony that Dr Hashmi has been going through during his long association with MPhil and PhD theses. It is in fact a matter of great concern that the standard of dissertations, most of them, has been falling steadily”. He adds that “I have examined about 70 MPhil and PhD dissertations and I can vouch for the falling standards that need an immediate attention. Generally, during the course of reading a dissertation one cannot discern what role the research supervisor has played though s/he is eulogised by the candidate to the skies”. “Another impression,” says Dr Jalibi, “that one gets is that the dissertation has been penned just because the author badly needed the promotion and the research allowance and his sole purpose of writing the thesis is to achieve that goal otherwise he is least interested in the topic or the research. One feels that after completing the thesis and getting a doctorate, the researcher would forget everything about knowledge and research and his or her journey into the unknown would end then and there, though it should have rather been a beginning.”

Dr Hashmi's book has been written on a scientific method and is amply cross-referenced. It can certainly contribute to enhancing the standard of research in general and Urdu in particular if only our scholars, research supervisors and student pay heed to it. If only ...

— drraufparekh@yahoo.com