A DECADE-YOUNG INSTITUTION: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is the regulatory body for the tertiary tier of education in Pakistan. Established in October 2002 following the promulgation of the 'Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002', HEC more than just replaced the erstwhile 'Universities Grants Commission'.
Its mandate was expanded to oversee various aspects of higher education, including policymaking, faculty development, infrastructure development, quality assurance, research and development initiatives, scholarship programmes, recognition, attestation and verification of degrees issued in Pakistan.
Last October, the HEC marked its tenth anniversary. Over the decade-long period, HEC seemed to enjoy a largely autonomous status and proactively pursued its mandate to develop and promote the higher education sector at home, while simultaneously building international linkages for students' exchange and R&D programmes. However, during the last five years, the commission seemed to have had difficulty in preserving its autonomy and executing its mandate, seemingly due to a variety of interlinked factors. This piece aims to analyse the performance of HEC since the last government took over in early 2008, comparing it with the commission's performance in the previous regime. Key higher education indicators, the financial resources and administrative issues will also be under focus.
STAGNATING SPENDING ON HIGHER EDUCATION Since the HEC's establishment, the higher education sector has been granted handsome amount of funding year after year - yet the quantum of spending hasn't reached even 0.5 percent of GDP during all these years. In fact, the higher education spending in terms of GDP in FY12 was the same as it was in FY04: 0.23 percent. This ratio peaked at 0.33 percent back in FY07, but then started to decline.During the first four years of PPP-led government's term, the higher education spending averaged 0.23 percent of GDP, the highest being 0.25 percent in FY09. The HEC Chairperson recently told BR Research in an interview that public spending on higher education in Pakistan had been gradually reduced to just 10 percent of total education spending, whereas the same ratio was between 20-30 percent for other developing countries.
The breakdown of annual spending on higher education gives a more instructive analysis. The illustration shows that, barring FY08 which was the year of last political transition, total higher education spending has shown year-on-year growth, albeit of varying degrees. However, the situation changes when looked at in 'real' terms. As per the estimations given in the HEC's Medium Term Development Framework, 2010-15 (MTDF), the annual percentage change was negative for FY08 (-13%), FY09 (-4%) and FY10 (-10%). Data for subsequent periods suggests that the real growth rate turned positive in FY11, but slipped back into negative in FY12.
During the PPP-led regime, the recurrent higher education expenditures witnessed better year-on-year growth relative to the development expenditures. Resultantly, the development spending growth has remained negative in real terms during FY08 (-5%), FY09 (-11%) and FY10 (-39%), as per the MTDF. The data show that development spending recorded only marginal real growth in FY11 and FY12 as allocations were improved in later years.
Since the last government took over in March 2008, the HEC reportedly faced multiple delays in disbursements of its development funds every year. It is said that the government would have also liked to occasionally pull the plug on recurrent spending, had it not been for the protesting faculties and staff at the public sector universities and other degree awarding institutions.
IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION INDICATORS The higher education sector has been able to improve upon various indicators since the last government took reigns, notwithstanding the various issues the HEC had to deal with (which will be narrated shortly). The number of higher education institutions (HEIs) - those which are duly recognised by the HEC - had reached 134 in 2011 - an addition of 13 institutions since 2007, many of which were opened in second and third tier cities such as Bannu, Kohat, Sargodha and Sukkur. Enrollment in the HEIs had reached almost one million by the end of 2012, which shows a growth of 56 percent since 2007 end. That led to an increase in the percentage of total Pakistani youth enrolled in universities (17-23 years old) from 6.2 percent in 2007 to eight percent in 2012. However, female enrolment dropped from 46.4 percent in June 45percent in June 2010 (this data for 2011 and 2012 is not publicly available).
BUILDING UP A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY Meanwhile, Pakistan remained on course in its quest towards a knowledge economy in last five years. Over 900 Pakistanis are expected to have acquired their PhDs in the year 2012, compared to 433 in the year 2007. However, the PhD faculty concentration had dropped to 22 percent in 2011 compared to 23.9 percent in 2007. That, of course, is an average figure, which masks the likelihood that there can be too few universities housing too many PhDs. But that may improve, for over 7,500 scholars are said to be currently pursuing PhD on HEC scholarships both within and outside Pakistan, who can be expected to join the faculties in Pakistan later. Cognisant of the faculty development needs, HEC plans to raise the PhD faculty to 40 percent by 2020, which will require additional 16,000 PhDs by then.
As more PhDs are joining the faculties at Pakistani HEIs, the research output has been increasing. The research papers produced by Pakistani universities had increased 1.5 times over 2007 to reach 6,250 in 2011, and this number is expected to have touched 8,000 in 2012. At this pace, SCImago - an independent research database firm - has estimated that Pakistan will have the second highest growth in the Asiatic region by 2018, helping the country jump up from its current world-wide research ranking of 43 to 27. The HEC Chairperson had also informed BR Research that more than five Pakistani universities are ranked among the top 300 universities of the world, while there were none few years ago. By 2015, he expects at least ten Pakistani universities to be in the top 300 list, with one in the top 100.
Quality assurance has also come under increasing focus. In recent years, the HEC has started concentrating on standardised quality enhancement procedures in local universities, through dedicated cells that have been established in over 85 universities. To promote competition among HEIs and create awareness among the public, university rankings are now being published, programme-wise as well as research-output-wise. Rollout of split programmes and joint-degree programmes with foreign universities is indicative of growing linkages and recognition of Pakistan's higher education sector abroad.
HEC has also been active in recent years in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. It has established the "Offices of Research, Innovation, and Commercialisation" in various universities, to train the students to drive the innovation process themselves. Moreover, "Business Incubation Centers" have been set up within some universities, where small office space and secretarial support is provided to help students implement their business plans and ideas into reality. But the impact of such ventures will take time to come forth.
ALONG CAME TROUBLES...HEC has remained in the eyes of the storm throughout the PPP-led government's tenure. Following are some of the roadblocks the commission had to maneuver in last five years:
- Devolution Disarray: For quite some time after the passage of Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment in April 2010, there was considerable confusion as to which government tier would take up the domain of higher education, for education as a whole had been devolved down to the provinces. The Federal Government would have given in to the urge of breaking up the HEC and distributed its parts among provinces if it were not for a growing constituency from within the higher education sector (faculty, researchers and students) who raised their voices against any such move. At long last, better sense prevailed, with this realisation that higher education is distinct from other tiers of education, and that its national priorities, international focus and research linkages make it a federal subject.
---- Funding Delays: But, the turf wars over the domain of higher education continued, which affected the timely availability of funding to the HEC. Federal Government would keep dilly-dallying on releasing recurrent and development funds to the commission. The delay in funds continued, even after the HEC was off the chopping block post-devolution, right through to the government's terminal months in office.
---- Autonomy Battles: The matter of the extension of a former, long-serving Executive Director of the HEC caused a lot of friction between government and the commission late last year, causing the matter to land in Supreme Court. Earlier this year, a private member bill, with the title of 'HEC Amendment Bill (2013)', was moved in the Parliament, which sought to place the administrative control of HEC under the Ministry of Education and Training (MET). However, after deliberations with the academia, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education and Training stopped this Bill forthwith in early February. Both moves were seen as attempts to curtail HEC's administrative autonomy.
But the commission's financial autonomy was left in jeopardy, after the government reportedly changed rules of business (during its final weeks in office) to allow the MET to release funds to the HEC. Previously, HEC used to get its funds directly from the Ministry of Finance.
---- Degree's Verification: HEC continuously found itself in the spotlight in last government's term, especially towards the end, as it reportedly faced pressure on the degree verification issue. Seemingly, here too, political interests were at work.
HAVING WEATHERED THE STORM, WHAT NEXT? Despite the distractions, higher education sector remained on track in last five years, for two major reasons, which are important to note. First, by the time previous government concluded its term in November 2007, the higher education sector had established its individual credentials and HEC had emerged as a strong and capable institution. What transpired in the sector following the March 2008 political transition had its roots in the investments made during the 2002-07 period.
Moreover, the progress of recent years is also explained by the fact that despite hitting roadblocks, HEC mostly came on top due to its discerning leadership, which helped the organisation go on, though not with the ideal ease seen during its earlier years. Developed countries' experience shows that investments made in the higher education sector take time to lead to fruition. Therefore, it is recommended that the next elected government let the HEC operate independently and unfettered, and also appropriate higher development funds for priority areas...