The Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Javed Leghari has said that majority of the people including political parties, scholars and students are against the devolution of HEC. Addressing the first International Conference on "Promotion of Social Science Research in Pakistani Universities, Prospects and Challenges," he said that the devolution of HEC would affect the higher education sector in the country and the government should take the opinion of students through conducting a poll.
He further said that the HEC is facing various challenges and in order to resolve them a collective effort is needed. The matter of HEC devolution has spread disappointment amongst the student community.
He declared that all the government and private universities have protested against the devolution of HEC, its devolution would directly affect the higher education sector in the country. The performance of HEC is in front of the nation and the whole world is praising the institution.
In the history of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam University for the very first time has been included in the list of world's best universities which is surely a matter of pride for the country, he said. "The matter of HEC's devolution is currently under trial in the Supreme Court, which should resolve the matter keeping the national interest into consideration. As the judiciary is free and can freely implement its decision," he added.
Chairman HEC said that the Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan is an advisory committee established in 2003 aimed at developing the existing level of faculty, improve R&D in social sciences and humanities, develop infrastructure as well as a quality assurance mechanism, keeping in view the international trends.
Laghari said that every possible effort is being made to enhance the social science research in Pakistani universities in a way to have a direct impact on the policy making of the country. Effective demand for academic research in the social sciences in South Asian region remains both weak and in particular cases, undiscovered. The failure in articulating a need for quality research is compounded by structural constraints, which distant the market for such research and generates disincentives for researchers.
In his keynote address entitled "The Crisis in Social Science Research in South Asia: Coping with Market Failure and Structural Constraints," Rehman Sobhan Chairman Centre for Policy Dialogue Bangladesh said that the extent of influence exercised by our external partners depended to some extent in the professional competence as well as political influence of our respective bureaucracies.
He further said that the climate for social science research has been evolving with the changing times. "Today the international development community is much more open to heterodox thinking than they used to be.
"The global discourse on development policy has not remained immune to the growing crisis within the globalisation process", said Rehman Sobhan, adding that the policy agendas, which once dominated policy thinking in South Asia have, in most countries, failed to deliver sustained growth or significant alleviation of poverty whilst social disparities have widened. New agendas, prioritising poverty reduction, human development and good governance through policy ownership, have now been introduced into the policy domain through such exotic acronyms such as the PRSP and the MGDs, and once marginalized domestic researchers are being rediscovered, he added. He stressed the importance of quality research, which provides both creative as well as credible policy options to bring about substantive change in the lives of people. "To this end, there is a need to channel adequate budgetary resources to the research community without political strings attached to it. If quality research, which can inspire agendas for inclusive change, can be put on the table, with the full backing of democratically elected governments, the international community will be persuaded to respect and recognise these influences as legitimate sources of policy change," he added.
Experts in the field of Social Sciences from both home and abroad participated in the conference. The participants also included young faculty of Social Sciences and indigenous PhD scholars, who would be making poster presentations based on their research.