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Sunday April 27, 2025
Dr Ayesha Razzaque
Dr Ayesha Razzaque

  • April 12, 2025

    Fall of an education giant

    Actions of ICE are sweeping and have targeted not only int'l students holding visas but also green card holders

  • March 21, 2025

    Education Reformer Cookbook

    Reports suggest that entire GBP190 million is to be spent on this single project

  • March 01, 2025

    A most predictable coup

    Shift in university priorities to simple publication metrics developed a culture of junk publications

  • January 31, 2025

    Right (wo)man for the job

    Few university leaders are dynamic enough to develop plan to generate additional revenue for their institutions

  • January 04, 2025

    Customised classes for the elite

    Automation enables mass production of goods to achieve greater efficiencies and allows pricing them within purchasing power of more consumers

  • December 18, 2024

    The curious case of madrassa regulation

    Distancing madrassas from the education sector could jeopardise this path for millions of madrassa students

  • November 23, 2024

    The new higher-ed reality

    For last eight years, HEC's budget has been virtually stagnant in absolute terms

  • October 31, 2024

    Zen and the art of reading

    Statista Market Insights put Pakistan’s total book sales at a paltry $60 million

  • October 18, 2024

    The spectrum of violence

    Students, progressive groups – let’s call them the ‘Toothless’ – are usually at receiving end

  • October 15, 2024

    How to raise fact-checkers — learning from Finland

    If they had, his reasoning went, someone would have seen them by now

  • September 28, 2024

    A day at the cat cafe

    In one university , the statutory positions of controller, registrar, and treasurer have not been filled since November 2022

  • September 21, 2024

    A critical mass of talent

    If mass of material is below this threshold , reaction will not be self-sustaining and fizzle out

  • September 03, 2024

    The university camel race

    Six universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are operating without any VC at all

  • August 21, 2024

    The great tuition debate

    Public schools are inexpensive in relative, and arguably absolute, terms

  • August 02, 2024

    When education meets land grab

    A representational image showing the building of Bacha Khan Medical College in Mardan. — BKMC/Facebook/FileImagine this: A bully enters a man’s...

  • July 19, 2024

    Med to math: PEC’s misguided curveball

    Decision was disseminated via letter to VCs, rectors, and heads of all higher education institutions in Pakistan

  • July 10, 2024

    Got taxes? Post-budget survival guide

    We have known for decades that there is a need to broaden the base of taxpayers in the country

  • July 01, 2024

    Telco to tech: the shift in education’

    For as long as I can remember, among engineering disciplines, electrical engineering has been the top choice

  • June 20, 2024

    Pakistan and the skills report

    2024 Global Skills Report report places Pakistan at 84 out of larger cohort of 109 countries in global skills proficiency rankings

  • June 06, 2024

    Universities and the financial tightrope

    SIFC announced that federal government would now require provinces to match federal contributions to higher education

  • May 20, 2024

    Welcome to the summer of AI

    April saw the release of Meta’s Llama 3 generative large language model, notable for being open-source

  • May 03, 2024

    A divisive frame of mind

    The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority headquarters can be seen in this picture released on November 4, 2021. — Facebook/NEPRAWould you...

  • April 18, 2024

    Daanish dilemma: beyond the fold

    Today, a total of 11,000 children are attending Daanish schools in Punjab

  • April 08, 2024

    The pursuit of uniformity

    Metropabad was a sought-after place to live, which is why NUT – a public university – was fortunate to attract some of the most qualified...

  • March 29, 2024

    Defunding of public higher education

    Since 2017, the number of public universities has grown by 53 per cent

  • March 18, 2024

    New data, old insights

    Learning achievement in Urdu, Sindhi, and Math at 5th grade level in most provinces and districts has gone down in the 2023 survey

  • March 01, 2024

    The AI frontier at WGS

    I hope and pray that AI revolution does not become latest one in which we are relegated to end users of other people’s labour

  • February 07, 2024

    Parachuted manifestos

    I reviewed manifestos of three major parties – PML-N, PPP, and PTI – that have held power at some points in past

  • January 31, 2024

    The land where time stands still

    Escalating situation by responding with physical violence and inviting violence in turn

  • January 18, 2024

    Why are Pakistanis leaving?

    I put down some of my thoughts on issue last year in an op-ed in these pages Are Pakistanis really leaving September 8, 2023

  • December 30, 2023

    The rising cost of higher education

    How, you may wonder, are changes in household spending in the US relevant to us here in Pakistan?

  • December 23, 2023

    The fierce politics of Pakistan’s academia

    Sayre’s law, named for Columbia University political scientist Wallace Stanley Sayre, states that “The politics of the university are so intense...

  • December 01, 2023

    What ails public-sector education?

    I asked 12 year-old Sultan to read from his Urdu textbook. He struggled to read a simple sentence . While he eventually read the sentence, he could...

  • November 11, 2023

    So you want to start working?

    The image shows a workplace in the US. — AFP FileA few months ago, these pages carried an op-ed of mine that attempted to provide some insights...

  • October 29, 2023

    We don’t need thought control

    A picture taken from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel on October 28, 2023. — AFPSince Israel began...

  • October 19, 2023

    Can you build your own major?

    A person can be seen making hand gestures while speaking in a professional setting. — Unsplash/FileWhen you become aware of a problem, you can...

  • October 02, 2023

    Education and other non-priorities

    Around the world, universities have multiple goals. Core among them remains teaching in degree programmes to pass on knowledge, make young adults...

  • September 20, 2023

    Welcome to college – and adulthood

    Fall, the time when millions of students all over the world – including Pakistan – will start their college journeys, is upon us. Many will be...

  • September 08, 2023

    Are Pakistanis really leaving?

    A few weeks ago, the caretaker prime minister’s soundbite about educated Pakistanis who choose to settle abroad attracted public ire.Coming so...

  • August 28, 2023

    CIE conundrum: the sequel

    A few weeks ago, A-level students in Pakistan and the region received their grades for the May/June 2023 exam session. The results came as a shock...

  • August 21, 2023

    Leading without a plan

    Public universities are facing multiple challenges that we keep hearing about, ranging in nature from academic, administrative, managerial,...

  • August 10, 2023

    How the [HEI] sausage is made

    At the beginning of this year, I contributed an op-ed about how in its waning days, members of the Punjab Assembly went on a university charter...

  • August 01, 2023

    Unchecked power in a university

    What happens when you put a man in charge of a university, grant him virtually unchecked power over staff and faculty who in turn have unchecked...

  • July 24, 2023

    Internationalizing a university

    I recently had the opportunity to visit Incheon in South Korea’s greater Seoul area. I spent time at the Incheon Global Campus, a global education...

  • July 13, 2023

    Pakistan’s skills report card

    The vast majority of 240-odd universities in the country are failing both of their missions: the idealistic goal of learning for learning’s sake,...

  • July 05, 2023

    What should VCs be worried about?

    Today’s university vice-chancellors are facing a number of challenges. The number one challenge by far that universities are grappling with,...

  • June 21, 2023

    All hail the SNC

    I was on a road trip to the northern areas with friends. We were at a rest stop, our black off-road utility vehicle parked on the side of the road,...

  • June 12, 2023

    Dreams of disruption

    Some people like superhero movies while others prefer horror movies. My favourite category of movies are tales of founders of companies that built...

  • May 27, 2023

    The admissions game

    International applicants to post-graduate programmes at universities in developed countries have long understood that having even a single...