HEC and higher education

On the surface, the plight of the skilled labor market in Pakistan is a rather confusing dilemma.

The steadily increasing number of graduates and postgraduates that our universities produce every year often complain about the lack of job opportunities on the market. But on the flip side, if you were in the position of hiring manager you would probably realize how difficult it is to find someone competent enough to fill most of the positions. In the country, when it comes to obtaining a university degree, it is not about “quantity”, but rather about “quality”.

Before moving to my research role at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), I was a project manager for another organization. Since I was given the task of putting together a team of qualified people, I naturally published a job advertisement. To say I was blown away by the total number of applicants would be an understatement. With a full inbox, I started reviewing applications. In retrospect, I can report that although most of the applications were eligible for “degrees and qualifications”, less than five percent were worth the first cut.

Ultimately, of those shortlisted, only a tiny number, as shown during the testing phase, could write a single paragraph without making significant grammatical or structural errors. I’m not usually one to criticize the general population’s ability to write ineffectively, but if a significant portion of college graduates cannot write effectively without making blatant mistakes (both grammatical and conceptual), then this rather reflects the sad state of the higher education system in Pakistan.

Recently at PIDE we organized a series of webinars to discuss the issues affecting the country’s higher education system. Of particular interest was the discussion about the role of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and how the HEC, despite strong regulatory powers, was unable to maintain quality standards across the higher education system in Pakistan.

A concrete example of how the current system provides incentives for the random accumulation of quantitative numbers without much regard for quality standards is reflected in the criteria that are set for the recruitment and promotion of teachers. As it stands, the system offers the faculties an incentive to publish more in often inferior research journals, as their promotion and professional advancement within the system are linked to an arbitrarily defined “number of publications”. In addition, the focus of research is not on research to solve pressing intellectual problems, but on the accumulation of numbers and publications.

This lack of innovative quality research and below average teaching staff eventually seeps through to the students within the system. No wonder that despite the oversupply of university graduates, it is so difficult for HR managers to find trained and competent people for the qualified jobs. In such a scenario, it might be better to reduce the footprint of the HEC and government in the higher education system in Pakistan rather than push for more regulation and uniformity through an even stronger HEC. This does not mean that all forms of HEC regulation are counterproductive, but that regulations that interfere unnecessarily with university operations and hinder innovative growth should be minimized.

In addition, the prevailing view must change that administrators in the HEC ultimately know more about what is better for the students than the students and the parents of the students themselves. The decision to study at university is fundamentally an investment decision; and students are aware of the costs and benefits involved.

In this sense, the Hochschularena is basically a market form that can benefit from liberalization in a similar way to traditional economic markets – ie: heterogeneity of products intended for consumption, quality assurance through market mechanisms and general integration of higher education with the labor market.

The author is a research fellow at PIDE and holds a Masters degree from Cornell University.

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/hec-and-higher-education/