IT is of paramount significance that the capacity of research and education in Pakistan be strengthened so that the country can achieve its economic, social and political development goals.

Education plays a vital role in poverty alleviation and fostering human capital formation. A system of quality education is the key for achieving societal productivity and sustainable economic development.

Quality indicators of education and research should be manifested by the competitiveness of the graduates in the domestic and international job market. For this, the knowledge and skills acquired at academic institutions need to be aligned with the industry’s needs.

Pakistan needs to restructure its higher education institutions by employing academic staff with a strong track record of winning research funding from industry

Promoting linkages between industry and academic institutions is imperative for achieving a higher ranking in quality education.

Pakistan needs to reorient its approach towards tackling chronic issues that have remained rooted in its education and research sector. The extremely low level of public investment in education is the major cause of the sector’s poor performance.

According to the Royal Society’s 2014 Atlas of Islamic World Science and Innovation, Muslim countries on average invest less than 0.5pc of their GDP on research and development (R&D), whereas most advanced countries spend 2-3pc. And students from predominantly Muslim nations who participate in standardised international science tests lag behind their peers worldwide.

Top-ranked academic institutions focus on close collaborations with the industry to attract research funding. The capability to raise funding from industry is one of the decisive factors in the criteria for the hiring of academic and research faculty.

But in Pakistan, most universities have not been able to develop corporate-oriented research architectures.

To overcome such anomalies, most universities in developed countries employ vast numbers of research fellows and associates who generally do not participate in teaching activities but instead carry out state-of-the-art research projects to strengthen their institutions’ linkage with industry.

In addition to giving technical knowledge to students, the curricula should focus on evolving professional and soft skills like project management, system implementation, communication and presentation, and change management. Science and engineering students must be given an insight into integrating the technical aspects of their education into business and corporate affairs.

Graduates of institutions having corporate-oriented teaching models compete better in the international job market and enjoy a higher probability of being recruited, in addition to succeeding in their professional lives.

For instance, most Australian universities offer professional doctorates that differ from their traditional doctorate programmes in their configuration and structure.

They provide opportunities to professionals with significant industry experience and aptitude to carry out research under the mentoring of research supervisors.

The introduction of professional Masters and doctorate programmes in Pakistani universities could transform education and research by promoting industry collaboration, calibrating academic curricula to better prepare professionals to meet the global industry’s needs, maximise the universities’ research output and broaden job opportunities for graduates.

Pakistan needs to restructure its higher education institutions by employing academic staff with strong track record of winning research funding from industry. This could help develop and maintain core functionalities as well as industry-specific knowledge and expertise. This could only be done by embedding industry-oriented research elements into the prevailing academic culture.

One major step is to revise the criteria for hiring faculty and to implement competitive recruitment procedures. Universities should be transformed into meritocracies that strive for scientific excellence. Parallel to this, university staff could be trained by enhancing partnership between the universities and research organisations in developed countries.

It is imperative to establish research centres attached to academic departments. Besides, faculty members must be encouraged to develop their own research directions and programmes to accelerate innovation and scientific discoveries.

The country’s education system must be geared to supply a ready and motivated workforce for domestic and international markets.

atteequr@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, December 28th, 2015