PAKISTAN is spending Rs54.7bn on higher education. More than 6,000 research articles are being published annually but seemingly the impact of research on our daily use is zero.

The reason that this research has no use in our daily life is that our intentions behind research are to increase merely theoretical knowledge without considering its possible practical implications.

Today, a majority of our publications are related to theoretical physics and mathematics. Even in purely practical fields of biotechnology or medical science we tend to find a topic which only requires theoretical study for our research work.

The attitude shows that we are doing research not to find out solutions to different issues prevailing in our society. Instead, we are doing research just for the sake of research and nothing else. This is the reason why industry is unwilling to join academia in Pakistan.

We should learn that the sole purpose of research is to serve society like in other Western countries. The government will have to make accountable all educational institutions to produce research papers that have practical application and are not mere degrees.

M. Asad Ishaq

Islamabad