Reversing brain drain

Dawn, May 3, 2005
Reversing brain drain
By A.G. Khan


AS the population of developed countries is aging and more learned people are retiring, many brilliant young scientists from developing countries like Pakistan are finding lucrative employment opportunities abroad.

In the process, brain is being drained from the developing to the developed world. To reverse this trend, some bold steps are needed in order to address the challenge and preserve Pakistan’s most precious human resource against strong forces of globalization.

I have been following the debate in the national media regarding the role of the Higher Education Commission in reversing this trend and in reforming higher education in Pakistan. I am one of those foreign professors who have been placed at different public sector universities and higher learning institutions under the HEC’s reverse brain drain programme of educationists, scholars and researchers from overseas. This is one of the many programmes that have been launched by the HEC recently to improve teaching and research.

In view of the fact that there is an upward thrust in the realm of science and technology, the pace of breaking new grounds has accelerated beyond limit, so that countries like Pakistan have to address this global change in a thoughtful manner. Economies of countries such as France, Germany, Korea, the UK, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. are based on knowledge and technology and they are embarking on the highway of growth and dominance in the world today. Knowledge is now emerging as the engine for socio-economic development whereas the importance of natural resources has been greatly reduced. Investment in knowledge is a prerequisite for national growth.

Pakistan, like other agrarian countries, is facing an acute deficit of knowledge and none of its universities ranks among the world’s top 500. The establishment of Higher Education Commission (HEC) on September 11, 2002, was in recognition of the contribution of higher education to socio-economic development of Pakistan. However, HEC has a stupendous task in transforming Pakistan from an agrarian society to a knowledge and technology-based economy. It requires substantial and sustainable investment in achieving the goal. These efforts would require whole-hearted support of the intellectuals and politicians.

Recent statistical figures are alarming. Out of 7,000 faculty members in our universities, only 1,700 possess PhD degrees. Only 2.9 per cent or so of the students in the 18-23 years age group have access to higher education in Pakistani universities. This speaks of the quality and quantity of education in our country. The HEC is aiming to improve this situation by expanding the capacities of the existing higher education institutions as well as by establishing new ones.

It plans to train some 20,000 students for the PhD level education in the top universities in the West so that each of our 60 public sector universities can have 300 to 400 PhDs as faculty members, which will form the core faculty so essential for improving the quality of education in our research institutions. But the aim of producing a larger number of PhD graduates with purpose-oriented education will not be achieved without transforming institutions of higher learning into creative and vibrant places.

The vision and professional preparedness of a teacher have to be improved manifold so that he can play a constructive role in transforming students into productive citizens. This can only happen if swift actions are taken on two fronts — namely, faculty and educators. University faculties are needed to be strengthened to perform teaching and research effectively in an environment marked with basic facilities.

The Higher Education Commission under Prof Dr Attaur Rehman is playing a constructive role in improving higher education in Pakistan by launching a number of relevant projects and inviting universities to formulate and submit projects for funding in order to strengthen their research environment as well as potential leading to a more congenial ambience for research and teaching. Faculty members should make best use of this opportunity by taking stock of their present facilities and submitting PC-1 for improving their infrastructures and capacity to conduct research. The HEC has established a digital library which provides free access to 17,000 international journals. This is now available to all universities and educational research institutes in Pakistan.

Why do Pakistanis living abroad flourish very well in their respective academic fields and fail to do so in Pakistan? It is not that they lack in intelligence but it is the lack of training and appropriate environment for conducting research in the higher education sector. Pakistan has been left behind in the field of science, technology and education because a low priority has been given to education in this country by most of the earlier governments.

The solution to this problem calls for action on many fronts. The HEC is taking many steps in the right direction, including inviting highly qualified Pakistani specialists living and working abroad. These expatriate Pakistani professionals can significantly contribute in producing skilled manpower in Pakistan by transferring their knowledge to our youth in the country.

Now that the limiting factor, namely, the availability of funds for implementing higher education policy in Pakistan, is no longer a problem, the HEC has taken some bold initiatives in undertaking reforms to bring the standards of higher education at par with international standards. It has also launched a programme of free access to sophisticated instrumentation under which scientists and engineers can send samples for analysis to any institute in the country of their choice. These analyses are carried out free of cost. The efforts for improving the standard of higher education in Pakistan should be commended. Hopefully, the foreign faculty members would act as catalysts in achieving some of these reforms.

For the first time in Pakistan’s history, education is being given rightful priority in terms of funds provided by the government. Steps taken by the HEC such as equipping labs and providing better access to scientific journals and books will facilitate research and the results will be reflected in the years to come.

For faculty development, the HEC is offering various teacher development and training programmes, both in Pakistan and abroad. Various PhD scholarship schemes have been initiated by the HEC to promote research and development in all fields of studies. Another important step in this direction is to offer PhD students enrolled in Pakistani universities fellowships to spend six months in laboratories of reputed foreign universities and bring back the latest knowledge and research experience. This Pak-foreign university support programme will have long-term relations between our universities and international institutions of higher learning.

A Starter Support for Research/Teaching Programme for fresh PhD scholars, who do not have permanent and regular jobs, but want to engage in research and/or teaching has been launched by the HEC to discourage brain drain of qualified scientists and technologists. This is another step in the right direction. Under this, a training programme for technical or scientific staff initiated by HEC, grants have been made available to meet the scientific and technical staff shortage in Pakistani universities and institutes, for accelerating the quantum of research and development in our institutions of higher learning.

However, despite all the good intentions and the enterprising programmes, it is yet not clear whether the administrators of our universities are ready to respond to the challenges of higher level teaching and research in new and emerging scientific fields and exploit their full potentials. Will inviting accomplished expatriate academicians in institutions with antique laboratories and outdated equipment and asking them to assist in teaching and research activities in local universities produce the desired results?

My own experience as a foreign professor under foreign faculty hiring programme of the HEC in a Pakistani university is very frustrating. Securing the services of talented Pakistanis working abroad for promotion of teaching and research in the country can only be accomplished if the existing infrastructure of the universities is improved and the bureaucratic system in our institutions is completely overhauled. It will be quite useful if the chairman of the HEC holds an orientation session with the VCs, CEOS and research directors of Pakistani institutions of higher learning to raise their level of response to the HEC initiatives.

It is equally important to look at the situation from the point of view of those who are at the other end of the spectrum, namely, foreign professors who have left the comfort and research-productive environment and amenities of their workplaces, homes and families abroad in order to be a part of nation-building efforts. Foreign faculty members should be seen as ‘resource persons’ bringing in new technologies and skills to supplement and enhance the existing facilities in their respective faculties. In the end, they will return to their respective countries leaving behind all the equipment and resources for future use by the indigenous institutions. After all, all of us including foreign and indigenous faculty members, are aiming at improving higher education in Pakistan.

The above-expressed sentiment and reservations may be valid in some instances, but I am certain that the many-pronged initiatives taken by the HEC to break the stagnation and the deadlock, will bear fruit and improve the present unsatisfactory state of affairs in the universities of Pakistan by overcoming the long-standing problems of poor teaching and lack of research within the next decade or so and bringing it at par with the international standards.