tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post2609505186209239508..comments2024-03-18T16:01:13.871-07:00Comments on Haq's Musings: Pakistani Universities Listed Among Asia's Top 500 Jump From 16 to 23 in One YearRiaz Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-66057655220147719322021-03-07T20:35:53.626-08:002021-03-07T20:35:53.626-08:00The (Pakistan) University Grants Commission (UGC) ...The (Pakistan) University Grants Commission (UGC) which drew its powers from The University Grants Commission Act, 1974 was replaced by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002.<br /><br />http://www.technologyreview.pk/mapping-higher-education-in-pakistan/<br /><br />A comparison of funding to the universities by the UGC and the HEC is enough to understand the level of commitment to higher education by the successive governments in Pakistan. The UGC provided funding of PKR 7,538.835 million to the universities from financial year 1978-79 to 2001-02 while after the establishment of the HEC, a whopping PKR 115,413.194 million have been pumped into universities by the commission from the financial year 2002-03 to 2015-16.<br /><br />University education versus school education<br />The Pakistani universities and DAIs are offering academic and research programs in anthropology, agriculture, space sciences, fisheries and aquaculture, computer science and IT, business and management, engineering and technology, veterinary science, psychology, so on and so forth.<br /><br />With institutes of higher learning like the Virtual University (VU), the country’s first university based completely on modern information and communication technologies offering academic programs while “using free-to-air satellite television broadcasts and the Internet” and the Information Technology University (ITU) which is nurturing “an environment of hightech research and entrepreneurship with its state-of-the-art facilities, world-class faculty, in-house startups incubator and well-established government and industry linkages,” Pakistan’s higher education landscape is certainly versatile.<br /><br />The Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), an initiative of the HEC, launched in 2002, is providing communication infrastructure to the 250 plus universities and institutes of higher learning, including colleges and research organizations of the country to meet their networking and internet requirements.<br /><br />Whereas, as per the latest Pakistan Education Atlas, a staggering 46 percent of public sector primary schools (124,284 primary schools) in Pakistan are without electricity. The Pakistan Education Atlas, prepared by the federal government’s Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM) and UN World Food Program, was launched in September 2015. Besides many others, the country’s school education system is facing challenges of missing facilities. Luckily, most Pakistani universities do not face such challenges.<br /><br />Scholarships galore<br /><br />Presently, there are some 40,000 faculty members in public and private sector universities and DAIs of the country and only about 10,000 of them are PhDs which makes it a 25 percent of the total teaching strength in Pakistani universities.<br /><br />After the establishment of the HEC, Pakistan witnessed a kind of ‘revolution’ in indigenous and foreign scholarships for MPhil and PhD programs both for the faculty members and the students.<br /><br />The HEC, under its Faculty Development Program (FDP), has so far awarded 2,450 foreign scholarships, executed by universities and DAIs, with maximum 938 scholarships in the discipline of Engineering and Technology. These are followed by 493 scholarships in Physical Sciences and 431 in Social Sciences.<br /><br />So far, the HEC has sent 7,806 Pakistani students under its Overseas Scholarships Program out of which 5,683 have returned while 2,123 are currently pursuing MPhil leading to PhD or PhD programs abroad. Those who have returned 1,874 scholars completed their studies in Biological and Medical Sciences, 1,406 in Physical Sciences and 979 in Engineering and Technology.<br /><br />Of those who availed Overseas Scholarships, 1,341 were sent to United States, 1,226 to United Kingdom and 907 to Cuba.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-13508735406748945292019-06-29T16:55:14.955-07:002019-06-29T16:55:14.955-07:00Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) pr...Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project was successfully negotiated between the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the World Bank in May 2019, for a $400 Million IDA credit support. Subsequently, the project was approved by the World Bank Board in May.<br /><br />https://academiamag.com/government-world-bank-signs-agreement/<br /><br />The project has five components. The Component-1, Nurturing academic excellence in strategic sectors, will help promote relevant and cutting-edge research in universities in Pakistan, through competitive research, innovation, and commercialization grants to researchers and potential entrepreneurs from among faculty members, and current students.<br /><br />The Component-2, Supporting decentralized HEIs for improved teaching and learning, aims to improve the quality of education delivered by Tier 2 universities and affiliated colleges through strengthening affiliation systems and technological interventions.<br /><br />The objective of the Component-3 is to leverage technology to improve the teaching, learning and research environment in Pakistan and strengthen the existing IT resources available to institutions for research and higher education in Pakistan.<br />The Component-4, Higher education management information system and data-driven services, aims to improve the collection and use of data for national level policy-decisions while automating business processes in higher education institutions.<br /><br />The fifth component will support HEC in strengthening its core functions of regulation, capacity building, and funding of Pakistan’s higher education sector through strategic and targeted technical assistance, including the establishment of National Higher Education Academy.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-57120507536777042032018-11-11T20:02:00.671-08:002018-11-11T20:02:00.671-08:00Pakistan's quality-adjusted scientific output ...Pakistan's quality-adjusted scientific output (WFC) as reported in Nature Index has doubled from 18.03 in 2013 to 37.28 in 2017. <br /><br />Pakistan's global ranking has improved from 53 in 2013 to 40 in 2017. <br /><br />In the same period, India's WFC has increased from 850.97 in 2013 to 935.44 in 2017. <br /><br />India's global ranking has improved from 13 in 2013 to 11 in 2017. <br /><br />https://information.epfl.ch/files/content/sites/vpplnew/files/shared/Rankings/Nature%20Index%202014.pdf<br /><br />http://www.unz.com/akarlin/nature-index-2018/Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-58652345157946482512018-11-10T10:23:33.425-08:002018-11-10T10:23:33.425-08:00Pakistan ranks 40 among 161 countries for quality ...Pakistan ranks 40 among 161 countries for quality adjusted scientific output for year 2017 as reported by Nature Index 2018. <br /><br />Pakistan ranks 40 with quality-adjusted scientific output of 37.28. India ranks 11 with 935. Malaysia ranks 61 with 6.73 and Indonesia ranks 63 with 6.41. Bangladesh ranks 100 with 0.81. Sri Lanka ranks 84 with 1.36. US leads with almost 15,800, followed by China's 7,500, Germany 3,800, UK 3,100 and Japan 2,700.<br /><br /><br />The Nature Index is a database of author affiliation information collated from research articles published in an independently selected group of 82 high-quality science journals. The database is compiled by Nature Research. The Nature Index provides a close to real-time proxy of high-quality research output and collaboration at the institutional, national and regional level.<br /><br /><br />http://www.unz.com/akarlin/nature-index-2018/Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-77954587784326386942018-11-10T08:39:18.585-08:002018-11-10T08:39:18.585-08:00http://www.unz.com/akarlin/nature-index-2018/
Pak...http://www.unz.com/akarlin/nature-index-2018/<br /><br />Pakistan only 40+ score vs India at 1000+...the actual measure of elite science output...read the whole article...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-73931827154309904962018-11-02T17:31:54.194-07:002018-11-02T17:31:54.194-07:00There is a proposal to translate and publish all P...There is a proposal to translate and publish all Pakistani publications into Chinese language simultaneously along with English. Sister universities in China will make the effort and this could lead to a swell in citations shortly. <br /><br />Pakistan is expected to be in Asia Top 5 in next 5 years as per my sources.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-12320717202124819952018-11-01T11:24:59.929-07:002018-11-01T11:24:59.929-07:00Nisar: "How does that compare to Brazil (roug...Nisar: "How does that compare to Brazil (roughly same size) or India (neighbour)?"<br /><br />Brazil has 22 universities in top 500 compared to Pakistan's 23. <br /><br />https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2019<br /><br />But why go half way around the world to Brazil for comparison?<br /><br />Why not compare in Asia with Indonesia which has a bigger population but fewer universities (22) than Pakistan (23) in top 500? <br /><br />https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2019Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-41817430567668167812018-10-31T12:21:49.367-07:002018-10-31T12:21:49.367-07:00"Number of technical and scientific papers pu..."Number of technical and scientific papers published in journals by Pakistan increased from 1,420 in 2003 to 9,180 in 2016.<br /><br />How does that compare to Brazil (roughly same size) or India (neighbour)?Nisarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-11601653521095583992018-10-30T20:40:49.238-07:002018-10-30T20:40:49.238-07:00Number of technical and scientific papers publishe...Number of technical and scientific papers published in journals by Pakistan increased from 1,420 in 2003 to 9,180 in 2016. <br /><br />https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IP.JRN.ARTC.SC?end=2016&locations=PK&start=2003Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-17499508667312011252018-10-30T16:26:47.729-07:002018-10-30T16:26:47.729-07:00Pakistan is among the top 10 countries in Asia for...Pakistan is among the top 10 countries in Asia for publishing research papers in the period 1996-2017, according to Scimago:<br /><br /><br />https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?region=Asiatic%20RegionRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-4101821304128039402018-10-29T09:34:18.626-07:002018-10-29T09:34:18.626-07:00So the civilian govt has done something good for P...So the civilian govt has done something good for Pakistan :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com