Higher Education Reforms in. Pakistan

Transcription

1 Higher Education Reforms in Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS Pakistan Ph.D.(Cambridge), Sc.D.(Cambridge) Former Federal Minister of Science & Technology, IT/Telecom and Higher Education ( ) COMSTECH Pakistan

2 Requirements for Rapid Progress Human capital with knowledge and skills Science & Technology Innovation/Entrepreneurship Infrastructure and incentives to innovate 2

3 Pakistan---An Exciting Beginning- Political Will! My appointment as Federal Minister of Science & Technology (2000), Federal Minister responsible for Higher Education ( ) 6000% increase in budget of Science & Technology 2400% increase in budget of higher education during last 4 years

4 Key Challenges in Higher Education Quality Standard of Education, Faculty & Research Access Enrollment in higher education Relevance Addressing the needs for Socio- Economic Development of Pakistan Financing Reforms 4

5 STRATEGY 1) BASIC SCIENCES Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology) 2) APPLIED SCIENCES (Engineering, Agricultural sciences, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Pharmaceuticals, New Materials, Communications, Renewable Energy) 3) SOCIAL SCIENCES 4) ECONOMICS, FINANCE, MANAGEMENT 5) LINKAGES WITH INDUSTRY

6 Challenge: How do we attract our brightest to Education/Research? Pakistan has 85 million below age 19 (54% of population)! Both a Challenge and an Opportunity It is the brightest among them who must provide the leadership in all fields--- education, S&T, Government HOW??

7 Attracting the Brightest! 1) Excite young minds about the wonders that science! 2) Select and train the Brightest in top universities abroad 3) Attract them back--- by creating an enabling environment : Salaries Research Funding Access to Literature/ Instrumentation Critical Mass create clusters!

8 Attracting the Brightest! Change in Salary Structures/Benefits Under new Tenure Track system salaries of Professors raised to over US $ 5,000 per month(equal to US$ 7,000 per month after tax concessions)---several times more than Federal Ministers in Government! Performance based system 75% Tax waiver for University Teachers (maximum 5%)

9 Attracting the Brightest! Science is Fun!!! Rewarding Talent : Young Productive Scientists have higher emoluments than more senior professors (Research Productivity)

10 Reversing the Brain Drain! Under Foreign Faculty Hiring Program over 600 eminent scientists and educationists have been attracted back--- after living most of their lives in the West Clustering---45 mathematicians, mostly from Eastern Europe, all clustered in one institution---govt. College/Univ., Lahore

11 Training the Brightest! Massive Foreign scholarship programs Nearly 4,000 awarded to date (Mostly for Europe) World s largest Fulbright Scholarship program for the US Over Rs US$ 1 Bln being spent on 8,000 Foreign Scholarships National Competitions --- Selection by Foreign Teams

12 International Linkages US$ 100,000 research grant to each returning scholar --- conditional : 3 - year collaboration with foreign university (potentially 4000 Linkages) Strong Joint Research Initiatives with USA Linkages established with top Western Institutions with British Universities, many others

13 Training the Brightest! Massive postdoctoral training program launched for all local PhD.s ALL local PhD students now have opportunities to study abroad on sandwich PhD programs Strong Quality Assurance

14 Distribution of Approved Project Cost 14

15 Using Technology to Leap-Frog! Pakistan Educational Research Network Digital Library Program PAKSAT 1 (Pakistan s Educational Satellite) Pakistan s International Videoconferencing Network

16 Information Technology Spread of Internet Services in Cities & Towns of Pakistan Year

17 Internet user growth June 2000: 130,000 Oct 2006: >12 million 1,000, , , , ,000 - Jan-95 Jan-96 Internet users Jan-97 Jan-98 Jan-99 Jan-00 Jan-01 Jan-02 Actual users more than 12 Million! Dial up Internet users Start point Today

18 Plummeting costs. June 2000: US$ 87,000/E1 August 2001: US$ 6,000 October 2004 : US$ 3,800 Now US$ 950 per month/2 Mb/s! Cost /E1 Start point 100,000 80,000 Today U S $ 60,000 40,000 Cost /E1 20,000 - Mar-00 May-00 Jul-00 Sep-00 Nov-00 Jan-01 Mar-01 May-01

19 PERN Pakistan Education & Research Network Core Network Nodes 03 Total Universities 56 (16 OFS, 22 DXX, 17 DRS, 1 VSAT) Abbottabad Topi D.I.Khan Khuzdar Nawab Shah Tandojam Khairpur Jamshoro

20 Digital Library 25,000 full text journals nation-wide,free-ofcharge!!! Over 1.2 million articles downloaded in 2006! Almost 300, end users trained nationwide One Window Search Engine developed with Lund University Web of Science, Scifinder Scholar, EMBASE, IEEE, Chem/Biol.Abstracts etc.

21 Digital Library Pakistan s National E-Books Program launched in September 2007 Provides free nation-wide access to over 40,000 text books and monographs Over 220 international publishers Down-loadable and key word-searchable

22 Paksat 1 Ku Band C-Band

23 Virtual University 4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT-1) TV Channels for content delivery (License for 2 granted) Satellite Earth Station 2 Recording Studios Potential for providing high quality training in remote areas of Pakistan

24 International Video-lecturing Program / Distance Learning High quality video-conferencing equipment installed Series of international lectures (nationwide) by top professors from leading universities in USA, Europe, Japan etc. MIT Mirror Website for access to Open Source materials established (

25 Quality Enhancement Cells Quality Enhancement Cells are presently functioning in 30 public sector universities.15 QECs will become functional in the public sector universities in the year Internal Quality Assurance System (IQA) Self Assessment Manual Higher Education Commission (HEC) has developed methods for assessing the quality of academic programs 25

26 External Quality Assurance (EQA) Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) QAA regulates and facilitates the Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) established in Universities QAA arranges capacity building training seminars and workshops on regular basis QAA develops policies and guidelines to assure that the quality of higher education QAA serves as master trainer to build capacity in professionals in QECs QAA is a monitoring and regulatory body to focus on quality 26

27 Accreditation Councils Accreditation Councils Established by the HEC: 1. National Computing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC) 2. National Agricultural Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) 3. Accreditation Council for Teachers Education (ACTE) 4. Pakistan Business Education Accreditation Council (PBEAC) 27

28 Quality Criteria developed by HEC Eligibility criteria for appointment of Faculty members Criteria for award of M.Phil/PhD Institutional Affiliation Criteria Tenure Track System (Faculty Appointments) Plagiarism Policy QA Framework Criteria for recognition of Journals 28

29 Glowing International Reviews-- World Bank USAID British Council -A Silent Revolution Nature --27 th November The Paradox of Pakistan Nature --28 th August After Musharraf

30 Results 600% in ISI abstracted publications and 1000% increase in citations over last 4 years Young men and women have started opting to adopt careers in S&T subjects as first choice Landscape of Universities has begun to change

31 Publications Publication

32 10 Year Citation Trends of Pakistan Source: ISI Web of Science (Databases=SCI-Expanded, SSCI, A&HCI) 2

33 OIC Rising Stars Sr. No. Country Field 1 Tunisia Agricultural Sciences 2 Nigeria Biology & Biochemistry 3 Iran Clinical Medicine 4 Pakistan Computer Sciences 5 U Arab Emirates Economic & Business 6 Pakistan Engineering 7 Iran Environment / Ecology 8 Nigeria Immunology 9 Pakistan Material Sciences 10 Pakistan Mathematics 11 Tunisia Microbiology 12 U Arab Emirates Pharmacology & Toxicology 13 Pakistan Plant & Animal Sciences Source: Science Watch.Com sciencewatch.com/dr/rs/08sep-rs 33

34 Ph.D. Output Growing by 50% annually!!

35 Investment in HRD Pays Back a Million fold! 12 Students trained under our scholarship program formed an IT company in Islamabad ---won a contract of US $ 250 million (Rs 20 billion) in competition to major international companies Innovation determines Progress----but you must create and nurture the Innovation Workers!

36 Expert Assistance Needed

37 Progress at HEC Currently implications of Bologna Process are under national level consultation International best practices are being reviewed & under process of implementation: 1. Quality Assurance System 2. Diploma Supplement Form 3. Accreditation System 4. Qualification Framework 5. Establishment of Directorate of Distance Education 6. Cross Border Education 7. PhD Country Directory 37

38 Higher Education Science Technology

39 THANK YOU