Research Commercialization in Higher Education
The nexus of universities with entrepreneurship and research commercialization is a dynamic interplay that leverages academic institutions to advance both research and societal development.
Pakistan’s Development Paradigm: National Innovation Ecosystem
Pakistan’s 88th position in the Global Innovation Index (GII) of 2023, is a cause of optimism and despair for many at the same time owing to the comparative improvement with respect to historic country performance and overall low standing respectively.
Demystifying Access to Higher Education
Prof. Dr. Sumaira Rehman,Rector, The Superior University, Lahore 03 January, 2024 Share: Higher education is called a critical defining block in the creation of a knowledge-based economy as it defines pathways to both establish and preserve the socio-economic and cultural capital of a country. Since Pakistan has seldom adhered to achieving these lofty outcomes, it continues to struggle even in the basic areas that include increasing access to education, improving upon its quality at different levels, and materialising contribution to the development of the knowledge-economy structure. Moreover, commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by declaring them the National Goals should further prioritise the need to examine the issues of access and quality of education as well the governance mechanisms bearing the responsibility of meeting these targets. The case of Punjab is a very pertinent one as far as developing an appreciation of the trilogy of higher education, SDGs, and governance mechanisms in our socio-economic and policy context are concerned. Punjab Growth Strategy 2023 and the Punjab SDGs Framework are two primary policy instruments that culminate in a public resolve to ensure equal, affordable, and quality access to higher education. While addressing the subject of prioritisation of SDGs, the SDGs Framework treats SDGs Target 4.3 i.e. higher education related target for Punjab as Medium Term target owing to policy support, development change, and sustained investments needed over a relatively long period. The Target reads, “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university.” The provincial target defined by the Framework is “100 percent of the present value” but interestingly there is no present value recorded. The Punjab Baseline 2015 reported by the SDGs Framework does not talk about it. Target-setting in the absence of a baseline is like setting sail for an unchartered journey. Moreover, the notions of equality, affordability, and quality need to be defined at the policy level for course-setting, fixing of responsibility, engagement of stakeholders, mobilization of both public and private resources, and progress tracking. “Although regulated by the HEC, the notions of access and affordability for a large segment of the population still remain questionable.” UNESCO defines access as, “ensuring equitable access to tertiary education institutions based on merit, capacity, efforts and perseverance. Post-secondary opportunities for underrepresented groups such as indigenous peoples, cultural, ethnic and linguistic minorities; immigrants; refugees; the disabled; and women are key”. This definition is broad and alludes to the existence of effective local systems addressing the subjects of merit, capacity assessment/potential of students, and mainstreaming of marginalized groups. It may not be difficult for us to find systemic affinities for these concepts but a system-wide alignment and measurement as data sets may easily be labeled as institutional and data gaps at the provincial and local level. We may refer to access to school education as a yardstick of defining access at the policy level. The Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 enacted for the implementation of Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan deals with the subject of access by stating that the government shall provide free and compulsory education to every child in the neighborhood school or the school allocated for the child. The Act requires a local government to ensure and monitor admission, attendance, and completion of education by every child residing within its jurisdiction. The responsibility of private schools regarding the provision of free education has also been addressed by the law and each private school is required to admit in class one and then in every class, ten percent of the strength of the class, children, including disadvantaged children of the neighborhood or other school. We understand that the strength of the Constitutional provision led to the enactment of provincial law for ensuring access to free and quality education. However, higher education has been mentioned by the Principles of Policy of the Constitution that are non-justiciable. Article 37(c) of the Constitution calls for making technical and professional education generally available and higher education equally accessible to all based on merit. There exists a sharp contrast between the scope of these provisions and their implications in ensuring access to citizens of the country. On one hand, we have spelled-out notions of free and quality associated with education in the context of access but on the other, the mere guidance received for policy formulation is that of merit. Furthermore, at the sub-national level, allocation of business done for the Higher Education Department by the Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011, does not make any mention of increasing access to higher education in the province as a responsibility of the Department. Legislation, policy formulation, and sectoral planning have been made to the list of departmental responsibilities and one may optimistically stretch sectoral planning to cover for increasing access. Likewise, the Punjab Higher Education Commission Act 2014 is silent on the subject of access to higher education whereas the notion of quality reverberates through the functions of the Commission. One may discern that consideration of access in general and for the marginalised, in particular, is glaringly absent from our policy discourse. Holding to our optimism, we may consider different quota seats in public sector higher education institutions as a consolation along with the availability of merit-based and need-based scholarships for students in both public and private sector institutions. Although regulated by the HEC and implemented in letter and spirit by higher education institutions, the notions of access and affordability for a large segment of the population still remain questionable. Data by the Academy of Education Planning and Management (AEPAM) reported primary enrolment to be 23.6 million in 2018-19 (latest available data) whereas enrolment in universities was reported to be 1.86 million for the same year, which means that only 7.8 per cent of the enrolled students could reach universities. The situation of out-of-school children, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-2021 (32 per cent children aged 5-16 years are out of school at the national level) further
Stopping by the Deserted Youth Policy
Prof. Dr. Sumaira Rehman,Rector, The Superior University, Lahore Youth has been regarded as an asset that has great potential for contributing towards the making of a developed and prosperous Pakistan. Youth bulge, population between the age of 15-29 years, constituting 27% of the country’s population holds a pivotal position in defining the trajectory of nation building. Given the significance of the subject, policy commitments at the federal and provincial levels along with their respective programs for youth have been resonating in the public space for more than two decades. However, the rhetoric of youth being an asset and its potential needs to be examined with respect to the efficacy of policy landscape concerning youth in Pakistan and implementation mechanisms of the envisaged policies. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan devolved the subject of youth to the provinces in 2010 thus making the provinces responsible for defining, gauging, and harnessing the potential of youth for the development of the country. However, we notice a plethora of youth centric development programs initiated by the federal government in the recent years. Although appreciable for their focus on mainstreaming youth and allied allocation of public resources, yet their relevance to the mandate of the federal government seems to stretch the constitutional division of responsibilities after the abolition of the concurrent list. Keeping in line with the constitutional requirement, Punjab promulgated its Youth Policy in 2012 addressing subjects like challenges to youth in Punjab, strategic action plan with guidelines for youth development in the province, and institutional mechanism for implementation along with a commitment for establishing monitoring and evaluation units. Reading through the policy, one is constrained to notice the evasive nature of policy commitments that seem to ignore the multiplicity of sectoral interventions and their much needed adoption by relevant tier and entities of the government. The Punjab Youth Policy 2012 defines youth development as;’ Youth Development is the phase of physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual growth, between the age cohorts of 15 to 29 years, when youth actively pursue to develop attitude, skills, knowledge and competencies to realize their potential and strength at optimal level for the well-being of themselves, their family, communities and the country. ‘This definition by the Policy is further supplemented with fifteen objectives that span from mainstreaming youth on the agenda of public policy of the province as a cross-cutting theme to help decreasing gender discrimination in the youth behaviour and conceptions, and to improve gender equity. The objectives further commit to help bridge digital divide by promoting positive use of ICT in the marginalized youth especially in the semi-urban and rural areas. The notion of recognizing existing diversity in youth across the province is a welcome one. However, this sparse recognition by the policy falls short of appreciating further categorization within youth i.e. very young adolescents, adolescents, and older youth dispersed over urban, semi-urban and rural areas of the province. It cannot be stressed enough that each segment of the aforementioned categories is faced with a peculiar conditionality that shapes and alters life choices available to that segment. The struggle of youth to find its rightful place in the social and national order is juxtaposed to its conditionality with opportunities for individual growth and inhibiting factors intertwined with each other. The extent and severity of struggle is easily discernible from the state of avenues for upward social mobility and that of affronting institutional mechanisms. Policy, institutional and governance structures draping the subject of youth development are multifaceted and complex in design and application. Formal education of youth, skills development, healthcare, cultural integration, exposure to urbanization, political participation etc. correspond to various entities within the governance system controlled and guided by their respective legal mandates and policy guidelines. The Punjab Government Rules of Business 2011 is the formal instrument that attributes various aspects of youth development to multiple departments and entities of the provincial government having varied implementation mechanisms and capacities. Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism Department has been made the custodian of youth affairs at the provincial level but interestingly its mandate sumps up its approach towards youth affairs as; ‘legislation, policy formulation and sectoral planning regarding youth affairs, sports, archaeology, and tourism’. The interconnectivity of youth affairs with other departments and need for further coordination and collaboration has not been considered significant. ‘Matters of youth organizations’ and ‘arranging visits of youth delegations’ have been deemed as other important areas by the Rules of Business. One wonders over the limited scope of this Department amid the glaring challenges of coping with the needs of youth development. The current trajectories offered to segments of youth across the province are contributing to socio-economic divide instead of bridging them as envisaged by the 2012 Policy. A policy devoid of appreciation for interlinkages of youth development with policy frameworks on education, health, employment, economic growth, urbanization, political participation etc. needs to be revisited to achieve the desired results. The current statistics on different aspects of youth development indicate that literacy rate of Punjab stands at 64%, and unemployment rate of Punjab is 7.4% which in absolute numbers has increased from 2.39 million to 3.05 million over 2017 to 2019. Number of colleges in Punjab is 2,409 and universities functional in the province are 73 in number whereby national estimate of students attending higher education institutions is 1.8 million. The provincial capacity of student absorption for vocational training hovers around 200,000 per year. Reported crimes in Punjab increased from 405,845 in 2017 to 609,404 in 2021 indicating an alarming 33% increase over a period of four years with high incidence of youth involvement. As per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, prior to COVID-19, the working population across the country was 55.75 million out of which 52.56 million resumed working after a lag of two years. Labour force participation rate of women in Punjab was reported to be 26.5% by the Labour Force Survey which is significantly lower than that of males. Punjab in these numbers and in the light of
Time for resilient universities
Prof. Dr. Sumaira Rehman,Rector, The Superior University, Lahore Amidst the horrors of civil war of the United State of America, Walt Whitman could hear the songs of mechanics, carpenters, masons, boat makers, and shoe makers. We heard delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work or of the girl sewing or washing through his melodies enshrined in free verse. Thus, individualized roles of citizens hailing from different segments of society merge into harmonized societal streams bearing socio-economic and cultural dividends. The sense of collective citizenship emanating from strong individual roles is one perspective for looking at the ongoing disaster management efforts across the country. Our students and teachers from higher education institutions, research centres, and universities present streams of roles associated with disaster management within formal and informal institutional frameworks. The formal framework addressing disasters encapsulates key policy instruments like the National Disaster Management Act 2010 (along with ensuing organizations created under the law), National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy 2013, National Disaster Management Plan 2013-2022, and National Disaster Response Plan 2019. The policy structure of disaster management is tilted in the favour of provinces therefore national guidelines have been issued for preparation of provincial as well as district level disaster risk management plans while retaining the review powers at the federal level with offering of technical support. All these formal policy instruments underscore the significant role of universities and research institutions with respect to disaster management. The National Disaster Management Plan calls upon universities and research institutes for development of innovative measures for mitigation and preparedness, collection of disaster related information, formulation of collaboration among industry-government-academia, assessments of hazards and risks etc. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy requires for updating of curricula of graduate and postgraduate courses in architecture, engineering, medicine, earth-, environmental and social sciences to incorporate the latest disaster risk reduction knowledge and practices. Guidelines for development of provincial and district level plans further recognize universities and research institutes as important stakeholders and seek their active input on complete disaster spectrum i.e. preparedness, response, recovery & rehabilitation, and reconstruction as defined by our policy instruments. Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab has successively developed Provincial Disaster Response Plans over the years and has made them available on its website too. Apart from their sharing of highly public sector centric approach, they display a common disdain of other stakeholders including universities and research institutes. Education department has made to the plan owing to its human resource and availability of extensive infrastructure throughout the province that seemed useful to response formulators for provision of shelter and volunteer support. The approach taken by the provincial plans stands in direct contravention of the stipulations of national plans and guidelines. One wonders as to what it would have taken to reach out to universities from public and private sector with extensive expertise in different areas of disaster management. PDMA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa developed its Roadmap for Disaster Risk Management 2014-19 and prepares monsoon contingency plans on yearly basis. The provincial roadmap may be credited with attempt to undertake consultations with universities over strategy formulation. Likewise, PDMA Sindh though infrequently develops monsoon contingency plans. Information for plans developed by PDMA Balochistan and of preparedness by Gilgit Baltistan is not available in public space. Although progress has been by PDMAs in terms of rudimentary planning, yet the direction taken and the mechanism adopted are not in perfect line with the national policies with respect to the defined role of universities and research institutions. A total of 81 districts across the country i.e. 32 from Balochistan, 23 from Sindh, 17 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 6 from Gilgit Baltistan, and 3 from Punjab have been declared calamity hit with directly affected population of around 330 million. Third tier of governance dealing with disasters is that of district that covers both line departments at district level and local governments functioning in its geographical boundaries. District Disaster Management Plans are to be developed by the District Disaster Management Authorities that serve as first localized response to disaster management. National guidelines for developing district level plans emphasize the role of universities and research institutes as important stakeholders. District Disaster Management Plans of D.G. Khan, Rajanpur, Mianwali, and Thatta (all notified as calamity hit) provide an apt case for understanding the policy milieu governing disaster management at local level within the defined national framework. District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) Thatta (July 2017 – June 2027) identifies key stakeholders and their role in disaster management for three distinct stages of pre-disaster, during disaster, and post-disaster. Despite being a medium-term plan aiming to be comprehensive, it conveniently misses out on the role of academia especially universities and research institutes as envisaged by the national policy documents. Since the DDMP Thatta is an approved plan, thus carrying implied approval by PDMA Sindh and NDMA, the absence of prescribed role of academics is alarming. Akin to Thatta, district plans of the three calamity hit districts of Punjab neither display the academic input nor incorporate the role of universities and research institutes in suggesting innovative approaches to disaster reduction, mitigation, rehabilitation, and construction. As compared to the formal framework, the informal institutional framework allows for deeper and substantive contribution of the academia towards disaster management in the country. On one hand geographical locale of the academic institutions renders them part of the local communities making them equally susceptible to disaster whereas on the other hand higher education institutions have the capacity and capability of informing policy makers over the needed actions to minimize risks of disasters and to mitigate their impact. Lone voices of academics doing their bit to draw attention of other stakeholders are rising in number. Students from every level are collecting donations for the flood victims and concerted efforts from within the academia are being undertaken to design and launch rehabilitation measures. Research is being conducted to investigate the impact of climate change and on our preparedness to reduce and mitigate disasters. However, these efforts remain in the informal
