Developing industry-university linkages

A policy dialogue organised by the HEC in Islamabad and attended by experts from different regional countries has developed a plan to commercialise university research, and develop linkages with industry to make a shift to a knowledge-based economy. The initiative is indeed commendable as it can help promote growth, as in the developed countries.
There was a broad consensus among experts attending the three-day dialogue that developing linkages with industry and the community as a whole is essential to ensuring sustainable economic growth. Vice-chancellors of nearly 30 universities agreed to work for developing a culture of knowledge transfer and innovation in their institutions, as universities are not supposed to work in isolation, though unfortunately universities and even colleges have been turned into isolated havens of learning, thanks largely to privatisation of education, which has restricted education's access.
However, there has lately been a pragmatic change in the policy of curriculum formulation, with greater focus on industry-related subjects, a trend that needs to be promoted. Placement departments have been set up in industries, which maintain links with institutions of higher learning to hunt for talent to fill job vacancies. Internship programmes need to be encouraged to expose fresh graduates to practical job experience.
However, unfortunately students from mostly high-powered private sector institutions can benefit from the facility, which results in waste of talent that is available in public sector institutions as well. The dichotomy needs to be narrowed down to allow the economy to derive greater benefit. As academic excellence, social excellence and national excellence are closely inter-related there is a need to adopt a holistic approach to the issue.
As a knowledge-based economy cannot function without availability of skilled manpower it is of utmost importance to develop interaction between technical/vocational institutions and universities, on the one hand and the job market, on the other. There is a need to promote the concept of internship, which can serve as a bridge between industry and universities in the interest of promoting a knowledge-based economy.
As building an educated and skilled manpower has a direct bearing on R&D inputs and outputs, in both public and private sectors, there is a need to develop closer university-industry linkages. An expert has rightly termed R&D the bedrock of industrial advancement, though many industrialists tend to treat R&D payments made by the government as a part of their profit. This has blocked modernisation of infrastructure and equipment with the result that such units are unable to benefit fully from scientific innovation made in the developed countries.
This has become a major handicap for the economy. We have indeed moved ahead in different sectors of the economy, though the competitive edge our contemporaries enjoy over us in infrastructure and skill development has left us far behind. There is an urgent need to address these handicaps under policy initiatives. Pakistan's economy will get manifold return in the shape of heightened productivity and profit. Competitiveness of our exports will also get a boost.
However, the power crisis is strangling the economy. Unfortunately, however, the high-ups are busy exploring lucrative options. We have graduated from IPPs to RPPs, while the work on coal, hydel and wind energy has remained painfully slow. This policy seems to have been pursued, apparently to project these cripplingly expensive options as the only alternative.
As the Islamabad dialogue participants have maintained, there is urgent need to develop closer and wider university-industry linkages to achieve switchover to a knowledge-based economy. There is a need to widen the tax base to generate additional resources without which it will be impossible to achieve such switchovers.
FBR's plan to focus on Islamabad's posh sectors to widen this tax net will hopefully achieve good results. Innovation and modernisation of infrastructure, backed by quality education alone can help us tap the true productive potential of our economy. The proposals made at the Islamabad dialogue need to be implemented in letter and in spirit.