Promoting research culture

Speaking at an international symposium in Islamabad on Wednesday, Prime Minister's Adviser on Science and Technology and Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Ataur Rehman emphasised the need for the promotion of a research culture in the country's higher education institutions.
Research being fundamental to scholarship and scientific advancement, these remarks should merit no special attention but for the fact that those familiar with the education scene point to a serious neglect of this prerequisite. No doubt, during the recent years the government has made substantial increases in its spending on higher education, including research.
As per its own claims, HEC has some 162 research projects worth Rs 265 million going under the National Research Grants Programme for Universities, with a special focus on scientific research. But, as we pointed out in these columns a while ago, in many a case these projects have little to do with scientific exploration.
Two incredible examples have appeared on the HEC's own web site. In one instance, an amount of Rs 56 million was reserved for a project dedicated to "Quranization of science courses at the M.Sc. level." The Quran encourages study and understanding of Nature's ways and human experience on this planet, and it has in fact scientifically explained some natural phenomena man did not understand before.
Far from a conflict between the two, science, focusing on physical facts, only subserves the Quranic quest for truth and beauty in the totality of existence, including man himself. It beats one's imagination as to why any intellectual guide is needed to Quranize science at the M.SC level.
The very concept of "Quranization of science suggests a dichotomy borrowed from the Western intellectualism, an un-Islamic division which perhaps still haunts the minds of those assigned the task of directing research activity.
Then there is another project, also advertised on the HEC web site. Initiated under the auspices of the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) at the cost of Rs 5.3 million it is a chemistry research and investigation which aims "to correct the mistakes made in this area by a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry."
As it is, AIOU is an institution of distant learning, with no known research work to its credit in chemistry. It would be useful to know how those conducting the project are to fulfil the lofty goal of debunking the work of a Nobel laureate.
It is plain from these examples that much of the research work being promoted by HEC is of little value in terms of advancing knowledge and intellectual curiosity.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, if the situation in the field of liberal arts is not any better. There the emphasis is on increasing the number of Ph.D. holders with little concern for maintaining high standards of scholarship.
Acceptance of plagiarism is common, which obviously takes away the incentive for people to conduct original research and examination. Dr Ataur Rehman appears to be conscious of this problem since he emphasised at the symposium that campus size or number of faculty members at a university is not important, the important thing is what we are producing at our universities.
It is hoped that he will take a fresh look at the entire higher education scene with a view to reforming the anti-knowledge behaviour of the education establishment under him.