The Higher Education Commission (HEC) stands on death row. Appeals for reprieve have been rejected by the commission responsible for implementation of the Eighteenth Amendment. That commission’s chairman, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, declared that “the HEC act will be revisited and reframed to shed its role as a centralised funding authority.”
His logic is that this constitutional amendment requires devolution of several powers to the four provinces. Since education is among them, universities cannot be federally administered. Instead, a brand new commission is to be created under the cabinet division. Other HEC functions would be turned over to various ministries and provincial administrations.
At first glance, disbanding the HEC appears to be a good idea. Its record is less than stellar. From 2002 to 2008, its budget rose by an astounding seven times — a world record. But a good chunk was squandered on various delusional mega-projects that failed spectacularly. Then, although it led to serious degradation of quality, the HEC encouraged the number of universities to double, and then triple. The number of PhD students registered at various universities was also made to explode. When confronted by students and teachers who were unwilling to meet international standards, the HEC backtracked on its quality guidelines.
The maladministration of universities by the HEC makes for a long list. Hyper-inflated salaries, recommended by the HEC, have made higher education more expensive. A full tenure-track professor nowadays can make up to Rs325,000 per month, about 30 to 35 times a schoolteacher’s maximum salary. Many produce only junk research and have poor teaching ability. Even today, the HEC puts out spurious data that mislead the public into believing that there has been some sort of educational revolution.
One might also wish to support the government’s decision from a second angle. After all, self-administration by the provinces is to be welcomed as a general principle. It could be argued, for example, that if a province is now to be in charge of its mineral wealth then it should also run its own universities. But caution should take precedence over legalism and a desire for sweeping changes. The steps to be taken, of which dispensing with the HEC is one part, will have huge consequences for Pakistan’s universities. Therefore, instead of jumping to conclusions, one must take a sober look and discuss the pros and cons.
First, the HEC’s record is not entirely bleak. It sent students to overseas universities, attracted foreign faculty to teach in local universities, created digital library access and took some positive initiatives to encourage research. Although programme implementation was flawed, these represented some progress in a country where good news is preciously short. Moreover, a full balance sheet of the HEC’s good and bad deeds is not essential for answering the question posed in the title. Rather, one must ask: What will be the consequences of the proposed devolution? Will it improve or degrade Pakistan’s higher education system?
Although I have been strongly critical of the shenanigans of the former HEC leadership, in my opinion, the government is headed in the wrong direction.
Instant dismemberment or serious disempowerment of the HEC is a recipe for producing chaos. Creating another bureaucracy or handing over the reins to existing provincial education bureaucracies, which are even more myopic and less competent than those at the federal centre, will negatively impact the quality of university education in Pakistan. This quality is already much lower compared to India, China or Iran.
The few checks and balances that currently exist, and which are actually enforced by the HEC, would disappear. Academic decisions would be made by those who have little understanding of how universities should function. This would push the system towards free fall. A wild policy zigzag is the last thing that Pakistan needs.
Instead, a responsible and nuanced approach is needed.
This means devolving surely, but slowly and carefully. Provincial administrations should be helped to build technical capacity so that they can be properly entrusted with key decisions, such as granting charters to new universities, university admission policies, etc. And while the HEC ought to be slowly downsized, some of its essential functions — such as quality control, foreign scholarships, and donor programmes — must be kept intact under federal control.
(This article was also published in The Express Tribune)
A great blog by an Indian:
http://globiansperspective.blogspot.com/
Articles:
1) Higher Education in Pure Science: Challenges for India in 21st Century
2) Can India, having citizens like me, be a moral role model for developing countries?
3) How can we have a riot-proof Gujarat?
4) Changing Orientation of middle 90% to Anti-Corruption (most recent)
Other side of the coin…Apart from the budgets occupied by HEC and the problems faced in terms of producing quality research …the fact cannot be denied that we have no other option or provincial infrastructure to sustain the quality of higher education and promotion of research culture as now done by HEC. Yes i agree with the conclusion that some autonomy may have been given to provinces but there must a progressive change approach to deal with the process of change because change is not a one time event it is envisioned, planned and stepwise alteration that require some wise and far sided decisions which unfortunately are not taken.
Hoodbhoy has some personal animosity with the HEC. He is pointing his baseless arguments against the HEC since the day of its formulation. Its not the people of Pakistan, but the reputable foreign scientific organization are stating the silent revolution of Higher education in Pakistan drive by the HEC. He is comparing salaries of a Professor, but he did not mention the requirement to be appointed as professor, if a scientist is able to satisfy the position demands, he deserve to get that salary. At the same time, he should also count the investigate the salaries of the bureaucrats and the army general. The cumulative cost and benefits is much more than a professor.
In short, dissolution of HEC will be the last nail in the coffin of Pakistan.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/pakistan-news/Nati onal/07-Apr-2011/HECs-gains-too-good-to-be-true
Pakistan Today
By: Staff Report | Published: April 07, 2011
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HEC’s gains too good to be true
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ISLAMABAD – The Higher Education Commission (HEC), which is going to be axed in the name of implementation of the 18th Amendment, is the only successful education initiative in Pakistan’s history.
Following are the achievements of HEC since its establishment in 2002:
More PhDs have graduated from Pakistani universities in the last nine years than in the first 55 years of the country’s existence. Research output (as measured by published papers) has grown six folds since 2002, from 815 to 5,086 in 2010.
Two Pakistani universities are now ranked among the top 300 science and technology institution of the world. Pakistan has invested more than Rs 97 billon for the development of universities since the formation of HEC, a twelve fold increase over the Rs 7.5 billion spent in the 1978 to 2002 period by the University Grants Commissions.
Projects worth over Rs 35 billion have been approved for support of engineering universities, more than 1,000 foreign PhD scholarships have been awarded in engineering along with more than 500 indigenous PhD scholarships. It was HEC that set up the Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), one of the most sophisticated computer networks in the world linking all universities.
Video-Conferencing Equipment is operational in 74 Institutions and expanding rapidly. In Balochistan, four new universities have been developed and made operational, as compared to two that existed in 2002. Fifty seven PhD scholars from the University of Balochistan are currently studying in AIT Bangkok due to the linkage established by HEC.
During the last eight years, HEC not only contributed in the higher education sector but it also earned international credibility, with the World Bank approving a $100 million support programme in 2008. Recently on March 24, the World Bank approved $300 million for HEC. All this investment is likely to be taken away if HEC is devolved.
Also, USAID was finalising a project that would give a $250 million-support to HEC, focusing on establishment of Centres of Excellence in Water, Energy and Agriculture.
There is important need to look at this dispassionately and without emotionalism. Here is what is happening now:
Devolution debate: HEC to be replaced with new commission
Finance ministry officials deny withholding higher education funding.
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to dissolve the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and replace it with the Commission for Standard Higher Education (CSHE), said Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday, even as finance ministry officials denied suspending Rs7 billion in funding for the HEC.
After the HEC’s devolution to the provinces, a new commission is being created at the federal level to maintain standards for higher education, said Senator Rabbani, who is the chairman of the 18th Amendment Implementation Commission, to a session of the upper house of Parliament.
Meanwhile, senior finance ministry officials denied any steps to withhold funding for the HEC, a rumour that had been circulating earlier in the day in some sections of the media.
The 18th Amendment to the constitution expands the powers of the provinces and makes education a provincial subject.
However, Rabbani, the primary author of the amendment, said that the constitution provides for the establishment of an authority at the federal level to monitor the standards of higher education in the country.
The devolution of the HEC has been met with protests by academics and students. On Thursday, the heads of 131 universities passed a resolution opposing the move to make higher education the domain of provincial governments.
The HEC has been responsible for managing the funding for most public universities, as well as government grants to private universities. It also manages scholarships for students to study at both local and foreign universities. Some students and academics have been worried about the effect that the devolution process would have on the funding of universities and scholarships.
Rabbani addressed those concerns by saying that the existing HEC scholarships would not be affected by the decision and the federal government would continue to fund these till completion of their tenures.
“The government is funding the scholarships,” he said. “Some elements having vested interests created the wrong impression that the ongoing scholarship programmes of HEC would be affected after the devolution.”
“USAID has already given clarification that it was not going to stop its funds,” he said, referring to the United States Agency for International Development, which operates one of its largest scholarship programs in the world for students from Pakistan to study in the US.
The HEC chairman and the vice chancellors of 12 universities were invited to the implementation commission to help address some of their concerns. The commission explained to them that many of the current features of the HEC would be retained in its successor institution.
Rabbani told the delegation that their input would be taken into consideration while creating the framework for the new CSHE. He stated that, after the implementation of the 18th Amendment, the provinces would allocate funds to universities, based on decisions taken at the National Finance Commission.
“The standard of the higher education and accreditation would remain at the same level as of today,” Rabbani added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2011.