Admission season

Fleeting moments

Glance through any newspaper these days and you come across advertisements of foreign universities, offering Pakistani students admissions in a variety of disciplines. The local representatives of these universities regularly arrange meetings in exhibition centres and seminars in upscale hotels to attract students. Why do we prefer foreign universities to our own?

Those who attended colleges and universities in the 1960s and 1970s think that the education standards in our institutions have gone down instead of improving over time. In those days, our institutions attracted students from the Middle East but not anymore. Instead of foreign students coming here for their education, our students have begun to go abroad to study in foreign institutions.

Education in foreign universities costs a fortune, which only the lucky children of the upper strata of society can afford. The foreign universities, on the other hand, earn huge profits by enrolling students from developing countries. This trend of attending foreign universities needs to be discouraged. This is only possible if we bring the standard of education of our colleges and universities at par with those of foreign universities, which is easier said than done.

As this newspaper reported, none of our universities is among the top 500 universities of the world. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) recently announced the rankings of the universities in the country. The announcement received criticism from various quarters for failing to meet the assessment criteria that developed countries use to rate their universities.

In the HEC rankings, the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) topped the list by obtaining 100 percent marks. However, if QAU were assessed by the criteria that rated the University of California at Berkeley as number one in the world, it would score a measly 6.25 percent. In other words, the HEC’s rankings lack credibility and show that the competition is between mediocre institutions.

However, not all universities (even those in developed countries) play by the rules. For instance, the UK government has closed down some bogus colleges and universities and warned the students, especially international students, to beware of such fraudulent institutions. Education is now a lucrative business and thus, it attracts criminals and fraudsters in every country.

For international students choosing a university is a dicey affair. They can only apply for visas after paying fees and getting admission in a foreign university. They would be shocked if they landed in a university housed in a few modest rooms in a shabby building downtown, instead of the sprawling campus they had seen on its web page – nor would they find the groups of happy students that they had dreamed to join.

In the developed world, governments take strict punitive action against fraudulent educational institutions. At home, the HEC is content with only warning students about getting admissions in colleges and universities that are not on its list of recognised institutions. The government neither bans such institutions nor slaps heavy fines on their owners. As a result, after studying in unrecognised institutions and paying heavy fees for years, the students often end up on the roadsides to protest against the HEC for not recognising their degrees.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has just warned students against enrolling in unrecognised courses offered by some dodgy institutions. The PMDC has also warned such institutions against advertising unrecognised courses. Why doesn’t the government clamp down on institutions that violate the rules of the PMDC?

Our education sector remains ignored because education is not on the priority list of the ruling elite. Instead, projects of high visibility – Orange Line etc – take precedence. This is not to say that development projects shouldn’t be taken up, but other important facets of development – such as education – should not be ignored in the process.

Sadly, it seems that the nation has remained untutored. We were not like this about four decades ago. What went wrong?

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.

Email: pinecity@gmail.com