Higher education policy & research in Pakistan: Challenges in transformation of the society and the way forward

Abstract

Education has incomparable obligations. One of the key purposes is to give input to national growth and labor market. To contribute in knowledge-based and knowledge driven society, higher education institutions and policy play a critical role. Higher Education System provides innovative skills to the graduates, to help transformation of the society from backward to modern economy through quality teaching, research and innovation. The Pakistan is facing multiple sectors crises such as energy, water and trade deficit. This has thus posed a greater challenge to Pakistan for its position on international economic relations. In this situation the higher education sector needs to play its role to help the country to bring it back to the economic trajectory. Under the Education Sector Reform under different Visions, the Higher Education sector of Pakistan has gone through an overhauling for the last 15 years. There is a protracted mismatch between the higher education and trained labor force which is detrimental to socio-economic transformation. This paper is an attempt to take a stock of these reforms in the education sector for input in innovation to sustain growth on knowledge based economy. My Hypothesis thus would remain that economic transformation of Pakistan is heavily linked with generation of knowledge and therefore Higher Education of Pakistan. This paper intends to correlate the higher education input through overhauling education system of Pakistan vis-à-vis socio-economic transformation of the society.