hec pakistan reports of naysss

8/6/2019 Hec Pakistan Reports of Naysss

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Higher Education Commission (HEC)Dissolution

A survey conducted by NAYS

Shehar Bano

(M.Sc)

National Academy of Young Scientists

(NAYS) Pakistan

School of Biological Sciences,

University of the Punjab,

Lahore. 54590. Pakistan

www.nays.com.pk


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NAYS Survey

Summary

Education plays the same role in the progress of a nation as the backbone plays in our body. If a

good education policy helps to build a nation strong than a bad education policy does the same

for its destruction. Establishment of HEC was one of the best steps taken by the government in

regard of education policies, and its devolution could be the worst. So NAYS decided to conduct

a survey on HEC dissolution in order to report the opinion of young Science graduates in

documented form. Owing to this purpose, on April 22, 2011, NAYS survey spread a simple

questionnaire as Google form to all the NAYS members which represent the researchers and

scientists from whole Pakistan. 400 of them participate in this survey. Results show that 94.5%

disagree with the dissolution of HEC. 63.75% dont consider it as a violation of 18th amendment

to resist the dissolution of HEC. In perception of 72.25 % higher education is a federal subject inmost of the developing countries. 84.25% thought that there should be same standards of Higher

Education in all the provinces and after the devolution of HEC it will not be possible. And it will

be great loss to the nation if more than 4000 PhD scholars who are studying abroad will not

return back after the dissolution of HEC.


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HEC Dissolution

ContentsAcknowledgement iii

Introduction 1

Overview of HEC 1

Questionnaire Design 3

Survey Method and Sample Selection 3

Response of Sample 3

Findings 4

Discussion 7

Conclusion 8

References 9

Appendix 12


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NAYS Survey

Acknowledgements

I bow in deep reverence to Almighty Allah, the most merciful and compassionate, theOmnipotent, most Benevolent and Bounteous. He is who enabled me and bestowed upon me Hiscountless Blessings to complete this survey.

A survey can never be successful by the efforts of a single person. So I am thankful to all thosepersons who play their role in spreading this questionnaire, and all those who fill it. I amspecially thankful to the patron of NAYS, Dr. Anwer Naseem (Advisor COMSTECH) whoencouraged us to conduct this survey. And at last bundle of thanks to Mr. Aftab Ahmad(president of NAYS) for his timely help and guidance.


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HEC Dissolution

Introduction

If it is said that present era is the era ofknowledge than that will not be wrong.Developed countries are rapidlyprogressing in science and technology.And the developing countries areincreasing their budgets of education andspecially higher education as they arestepping forward to the knowledge based

economies. As natural resources are ofno use unless a nation dont havebrilliant minds and appropriate policies

to utilize them. So the basic motivebehind the creation of HEC was toenhance the facilities of HigherEducation for all Pakistani students. Inthat way we can convert our economyfrom Low Value Added AgriculturalEconomy to Knowledge BasedEconomy.

Overview of HEC

In 2000 World Bank (WB) andUNESCO pointed out the backwardnessof developing countries like Pakistanwhich act as an inducer to activate theEducation Ministry. So Zubaida Jalal,Education Minister at that timeconstituted a task force to higher

education and research in Pakistan. Thistask force recommended the formationof Higher Education Commission (HEC)in place of University GrantCommission (UGC) which was formerlyestablished by Zulifkar Ali Bhutto in1970s. In April 11, 2002, Musharrafregime approved the recommendation ofTask Force on Improvement of HigherEducation in Pakistan. Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, Federal Minister of Science

and Technology at that time wasconsidered as a best person to take theposition of chairman of HEC. ExistingChairman of HEC is Dr. Javaid Laghariwho was appointed in 2009.

HEC is an autonomous body and PrimeMinister (PM) is the controllingauthority of HEC. Commission isconstituted of 17 members which is aperfect balance of federal, provincial and

university representatives. They areappointed for 4 year tenure and can notbe removed by anyone. Severalimportant functions performed by HECare as assurance of quality in highereducation and research, formation ofnew universities, provision of funds,accreditation of universities and thedegrees issued by them, andcoordination between universities and

industries etc.

As HEC replaced the UGC, so it is veryimportant to knew about itsachievements. Few achievements arelisted below:

No. of universities increasedfrom 57 in 2000 to 132 in 2010.

Enrolment in universitiesincreased from 1,37,000 in 2000to 4,00,000 in 2010.

In first 55 years there were about3000 PhDs but in last eight years3280 PhDs had been produced.

There were just 14 PhDs inengineering in first 55 years and140 in last eight years.

7500 PhDs are in pipelinestudying at prestigious local andforeign universities.


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Research output increased sixfold per year i-e from 815 in2002 to 5068 in 2010.

Citation increased 1000% duringthe last few years.

Through PERN they linked alluniversities through a 10GBbackbone and 1 GB connectivity.

75% of worlds literature (23000ejournals and 45000 ebooks) isavailable to all universitystudents via digital library.

Now 5 universities are ranked intop 500, but before HEC there

was not even a single universityin this ranking.

Now Pakistani degrees arerecognized in whole worldbecause HEC has earnedmembership of the Asia PacificQuality Network, as well as theNetwork of Quality AssuranceAgencies of the World. NowNARIC, UK agency for equatingforeign education system also

recognized our degrees that theydidnt in past. That all becamepossible due to the prestigiousperformance of HEC and due toits autonomy.

Performance of HEC wasadmired at world level. WB,USAID, British council, RoyalSociety, Nature, Science Watchadmired its role in differentwords. Some one called it as a

Rising Star and other one asSilent Revolution. Fred MHayward and many others alsopraised the performance of HEC.

But beside all these achievements thereare also few critics of HEC who pointedout the flaws of HEC as Prof Dr. PervaizHoodbhoy, Dr. Pervaiz Tahir, Dr AishaSiddiqa and Najjam Sethi etc. Their

objections include substandard PhDs,useless projects, expensive but uselessequipment and failure of foreign

university formation programs etc. Inaddition to this they also argue thatinstead of spending huge money onhigher education, Pakistan should spendthis money on primary and secondaryeducation.

The last week of March and the wholemonth of April had proved turbulent forHEC. In a meeting of ImplementationCommission led by Mian Raza Rabbani

on March 28, 2011, they decided todevolve HEC to the provinces. Alongwith this they retained several functionsat federal level but fragmented them inCabinet Division, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, and IslamabadCapital Territory (ICT). On March 31,2011 HEC was informed through anotification No.F.3(26)/2010-IC-I aboutits devolution. Then students protested indifferent cities of Pakistan against this

decision. Ministry of Finance alsoblocked the installment of Rs. 7.7 billionas the position of HEC was uncertainafter this notification. Same wasexpected about the soft loan of $300mapproved by WB and another foreignassistance of $250m via USAID. In ameeting on April 7, 2011, VCs of morethan 130 universities sought interventionby President Asif Ali Zardari and PrimeMinister Yousuf Raza Gilani to keep the

HEC as a federal entity. On April 9,2011 a petition had filed under theArticle 184(3) of constitution atSupreme Court (SC) at the behalf ofRippah International University RectorProfessor GA Miana and University ofLahore Islamabad Campus DirectorGeneral Brigadier Muhammad Ajaebagainst Federal Government andMinistry of Law by Advocate ArshadAli Ch. and was drawn by Mr. Anwer


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HEC Dissolution

Masood Khan. A plea was alsosubmitted by Dr. Atta-ur-rehman at SCto take a suo moto action against the

devolution of HEC. On April 12, 2011three member bench comprised of ChiefJustice Iftikhar Mehmood Ch., justiceMuhammad Sair Ali and justice GhulamRabbani held that the notification ofMarch 31, 2011 shall have no effect onthe functioning of the HEC in view ofthe provisions of the Ordinance 2002

and in case of any conflict andinconsistency between the notificationand the provisions of the ordinance, the

ordinance shall prevail. And finally onApril 28, 2011, the decision was takenduring the meeting of Council ofCommon Interest (CCI) chaired by PMSyed Yousaf Raza Gilani and attendedby the CMs of all provinces that thefederal government will continue to fundHEC until the next NFC Award in 2014.

Questionnaire Design

A simple questionnaire was designed toconduct this survey. The questionnairecomprised of two parts:

Personal Information Questions directly related to

HEC dissolution

Personal information was very importantin order to analyze the status of oursample. In second part there were fivemost important questions to know theopinion of our target sample.

*Full questionnaire is available in Appendix

Survey Method and

Sample Selection

Survey was conducted online byNational Academy of Young Scientists(NAYS). A Google form was preparedand sent to all the member of NAYS. Soour target sample was young researchers,

scientists and students of Pakistanworking in different prestigiousscientific Institutes worldwide. As theymay be the people directly or indirectlyeffect by the decision of Government.

Response of Sample

In a short period of less than one monthabout 400 people show their response.Among respondents male were inmajority with 305(76.25%) participants

and female participants were95(23.75%) as shown in Figure: 1.

Out of 400 participants 276 werestudents and remaining either have


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completed their studies or working asdoctors, engineers, assistant professors,lecturers or researchers at different

reputed institutes. No. of participantswith different qualification were asMS/M.phil 138(34.5%), PhDs

99(24.75%), B.Sc/B.Sc (hons.)65(16.25%), M.Sc 62(15.5%) and Others36(9%) respectively as shown in Figure:

2. Others include doctors, engineers andpharmacists etc.

Figure: 1

Figure: 2

Findings

Five questions were raised to know theexact perception of the sciencegraduates. First question was Do youagree with the Governments decision to

dissolve HEC? 94.5%(378) participantswere disagree and only 4%(16) wereagree, 0.25%(2) of them dont know andthe other 1.25%(5) either didnt reply or

Gender

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Male Female

No

ofParticipants

Qualification

0

2040

6080

100

120140

160

BSc/BSc

(Hons)

MSc M.Phil PhD Others

No

ofParticipants


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HEC Dissolution

they were in favor of partial dissolution as shown in figure: 3.

Figure: 3

The second question was raised as Doyou think that resistance to HECdissolution is the violation of 18thamendment? 63.75%(255) participantssaid No and 16.75%(67) said Yes,17.75%(71) Dont know about 18th

amendment and Others 1.75%(7)either didnt reply or they had their ownperception that shows that they dontknow more about the affect of 18thamendment on HEC as shown in figure:4.

Figure: 4

Third question was In most of thecountries Higher Education Affairs arehandled by foreign government. Asshown in figure: 5 answer of72.25%(289) participants was Yes andof 7.75%(31) was No, 17.5%(70)

participants Dont know about this andOthers 2.5%(10) either didnt reply orhad their own perception as one of themsaid even if they do, why should wecopy them and another said If they arenot handled by federal govt., they should

Do you agree with the Government's decision to dissolve HEC?

0

20

40

60

80

100

Yes No Dont Know others

Percentage

Do you think that resistance to HEC dissolution is the violation

of 18th amendment?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70


Percentage


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NAYS Survey

be. Its very much important for any country.

Figure: 5

Fourth question was There should besame standards of higher education forall provinces and if HEC is devolved toprovinces than it will not be possible.As shown in figure: 6 answer of84.25%(337) was Yes and of 9%(36)

was No, 3%(9) Dont know aboutthat and Others 3.75%(15) eitherdidnt reply or had their own perceptionand most of them said that some aspectsshould be administered by federalgovernment.

Figure: 6

Last question asked to young sciencegraduates was what will be the fate ofall young scholars who are studying inPakistan or abroad if HEC is dissolved?

And there were different replies butaccording to most of them the conditionwill be terrible and it will be a hugedestruction for nation. One of them said

In most of the countries Higher Education Affairs are handled

by federal government?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80


Percentage

There should be same standards of higher education for all

provinces and if HEC is devolved to provinces than it will not be

possible?

0

20

40

60

80

100


Percentage


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NAYS Survey

Federal legislative list part 1 and Itemno. 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 17 of Fourthschedule [Article 70(4) : Federal

legislative list part II basically protectHEC as a federal body instead ofdevolving it. So it is also considered bymany people either as a lunacy orrevenge on its accusation of checkingfake degrees of parliamentarians.

Next question is, in developed anddeveloping countries is higher educationa federal subject? The answer to thisquestion is yes in many countries Higher

Education and the Ministry of Scienceand Technology that are in directrelation of HEC are federal subject. Thecountries in which higher education isunder federal ministry include China,India, Malaysia, South Koria, Turkey,Japan, Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore andUK etc. 289 science graduatesconsidered Higher education as a federalsubject in most of the countries.

Another question raised in the minds ofmost of the science graduates is that bydevolving HEC to provinces, the conceptof homogeneity of higher education willcome to end. And 337 out of 400graduates agreed that this decision willspoil the homogeneity of highereducation in all the provinces. Manycritics of HEC argue that in this wayinter provincial competition willincrease. But the question is if they even

could not compete on primary andsecondary education levels, how willthey compete at tertiary level ofeducation? Others who are against theHEC devolution argue that thefragmentation of HEC even may lead tothe fragmentation of our nation.

Last question is what will be the fate ofHEC scholars after the devolution ofHEC? And the answer is, that will be

resulted in an automatic brain drain. Ifthey were not provided a goodenvironment here to work, they will not

come back. And the huge money whichHEC had invested on the scholars willbe of no use.

Conclusion

In the present scenario when our nationis already confronting at many frontslike terrorism, corruption and energycrises etc, fragmentation of HEC will be

proved as a bad omen. As no ordinaryperson is an angel, similarly none of thestatutory is flawless. But what we haveto do is to watch the overall efficiency.And if we compare the achievementsand flaws of HEC than it will be realizedthat HEC showed overwhelmingprogress and proved itself as a functionalbody. And its overnight fragmentationwill be proved as a monumentaldestruction. Even the critics of HEC like

Prof. Dr Hoodbhoy were not in the favorof overnight devolution of HEC to theprovinces, as the provinces didnt havethe capacity to perform the function ofHEC. And even if they have, still thereare several functions that should beperformed by an autonomous body likeHEC under federal government. Manyprestigious scientists like Dr A. Q. khanand many analyzers like Tallat Hussainwere also not in the favor of devolution

of HEC. Finally a good decision wastaken by PM on April 28, 2011 thatfederal government continue the fundingof HEC upto the next NFC Award in2014. But the question is what will bethe fate of HEC after the next NFCAward? Keeping in view the opinion ofyoung science graduates a better optionwill be as, HEC keep working as afederal autonomous body and at themean time provinces pay their full


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HEC Dissolution

attention to the primary and secondaryeducation. In that way provinces may

win the trust of people, and at themeanwhile dismal condition of primaryand secondary education can beimproved. It is very important to workat all the three levels of education at themean time, because, if tertiary educationis essential for economic developmentthan primary and secondary educationplays a key role in social developmentthat will help us to combat terrorism.

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2002/issue34/etc3.htm

http://pkpolitics.com/2010/04/03/summa

ry-of-18th-amendment/

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/27/refor

ming-the-education-system.html

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2002/issue34/etc3.htm

http://hec-

nationalconference.blogspot.com/

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrint

Detail.aspx?ID=4979&Cat=13&dt=3/30/

2011

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=5026&Cat=13&dt=4/2/2

011

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/06/govt-

sticks-to-hec-devolution-plan.html

http://dailytimespakistan.com/govt-

sticks-to-hec-devolution-plan/

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/07/perva

iz-too-jumps-hec-bandwagon.html

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of-130-varsities-seek-reversal-of-

decision-on-hec.html

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devolution/page/6/

http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option

=com_content&task=view&id=136060

&Itemid=2

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dissolution-challenged-in-lhc/

http://dailytimespakistan.com/dissolutio

n-of-hec-challenged-in-sc/

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/

04/ag-served-notice-on-hec-dissolution/

http://www.sananews.net/english/2011/0

4/10/sc-to-hear-hec-devolution-case-on-

tomorrow/



2011

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/11/prime

-minister-has-shelved-hec-devolution-

for-now.html



2011



2011


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http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/13/hec-

devolution-issue-divides-parties-on-

provincial-lines.html



2011

http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/23/khybe

r-pakhtunkhwa-to-have-own-hec.html

http://www.columnspk.com/hec-

devolution-editorial-by-dawn/



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dr-pervez-tahir/

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od-hec%E2%80%99s-devolution-p-ii-

by-dr-pervez-tahir/

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cising-higher-education/

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1/04/9-years-ago-2-exceptional-men-

moved.html?spref=fb


Detail.aspx?ID=40548&Cat=9&dt=4/8/2

011

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dissolution-creates-stir-across.html

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hiccups-editorial-by-express-tribune/

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1-weekly/nos-10-04-2011/pol1.htm#1

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0-4-2011_pg3_1

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NAYS Survey

Appendix: Questionnaire (HEC Dissolution)

INTRODUCTION: All of you know that now a days government is trying to dissolveHEC so our team decided to conduct a survey. And we are the people who may bedirectly affected by this decision. Thats why we want to know your opinion.

OBJECTIVES: As you all are the voice of this nation and being well educated peopleyour opinion matters a lot. And by our survey our main objective is to raise the voice ofall young researchers and scientists at national and international forums. So pleasecontribute, this will not take more than five or ten minutes to fill it but it can changemany things for the betterment of our nation.

How to fill it?

There are two parts of this survey:

1-First part is related to your basic information and that will be kept highlyconfidential.

2-second part comprises of the questions that are related directly to our surveytopic.

Personal Information

This portion is necessary to fill as it will be very helpful for us while writing final reportand that will be kept highly confidential. We shall be very thankful to you for taking partin this survey.

1- Gender?

o Maleo Female

2-Are you a student?

o Yeso No

3- Qualification?o B. Sc (hons.)o M.Sco MS or M.philo PhD

4- Your brief introduction?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________


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HEC Dissolution

HEC dissolution

Here is a simple questionnaire that is very easy to fill. We shall be very thankful to youfor taking part in this survey.

1-Do you agree with the Government's decision to dissolve HEC?

o Yeso Noo Dont knowo Others___________________________

2-Do you think that resistance to HEC dissolution is the violation of 18th amendment?


3- In most of the countries Higher Education Affairs are handled by federal government.


4- There should be same standards of higher education for all provinces and if HEC isdevolved to provinces than it will not be possible.


5-What will be the fate of all young scholars who are studying in Pakistan as well asabroad if HEC is dissolved?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for your precious time.

*You can view the published form here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFp4OHZ1VXFQZkdsWXd2VDNLeX15

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