The Culture of Research and Learning

Murtaza, What you have pointed out is indeed a dire need of Pakistan. Unfortunately,niether the government has the requisite funds, nor enough social capital is diverted to this field. How can we break this logjam

The corporate sector in Pakistan has yet to deveopl the this to support education. Their flagships like LUMS and GIK are already sinking. While our engineering students are still making fire extinghuishers as projects, students in USA are making hi tech equipment.

The college that I run has an exclusive Research and Development Department for both undergraduate and post graduate students. We began it with the misunderstanding that we would be able to make linkages with the corporate world and industry. As it has turned out, they see us as beggars. So we end up creating man machine interfaces and artificial intelligence which cannot be utilised. We are also strapped for funds.

So waht do we do?

Please don;t bother with all these complicated things. They will be hard for you to understand. It is better if you remain focussed on the following:

(1) Kashmir cause, and the need to fund jihadis that kill indian women, children and goverment officials.

(2) solidarity with palestinians who blow up buses full of israeli children

(3) ranting about natural superiority of islam and its great future.

pmishra2,

Or the following:

a) Indian soldiers who kill fellow Indian women, children and potlical dissenters (TREASON ALERT!)
b) Soldiarity with Israel, which blow up and raze neighborhoods full of, you guessed it, children.
c) Ranting about Islam....just because...

by the way eds -- this article was published in dawn many weeks ago, on its weekly education page -- the writer should have mentioned it

Good article on an important topic.

However,


ijaz_gul # 1

``I run a college!!``

The situation seems critical indeed.

[It is imperative to understand that the culture of research and learning also promotes the tradition of philanthropy. The patronage of academia and arts by individuals and firms has resulted in benevolent partnerships. ]

Excellent Point.

pmishra`s sarcasm is in a way appropriate here.

Murtaza Sahib - Excellent article ! While this a good effort in formulating in words a problem we all know exists, I was hoping to hear some suggestions from you. The question that come to mind regarding the sorry state of R&D in Pakistan are these:

- is the non-existent R&D ONLY because of the lack of funding? I am of the opinion that the `culture of learning and research` seriously lags in Pakistan even at the levels where the funding is available. The minds who should grow up to form R&D instituitions, go through a school curriculum in their formative years which is not conducive to developing any constructive ``thinking``.

- Is indulgence in R&D a result of love and care for the society you live in? (as you suggest). I tend to think that indulgence in R&D is a matter of economics. You cannot get involved in R&D for the sake of R&D. R&D should result in the creation of goods and products which the society benefits from. If there is no market for these products, there would be less incentive for anyone to spend any money on R&D.

I am not sure whether it makes any sense to compare research in North America to anything going on in Pakistan. They are in two different leagues. Comparisons should be made with countries like Iran, etc. Hence this article just points to the obvious, i.e. North America is way ahead of Pakistan. What is more important is to highlight how to improve research in Pakistan, keeping in mind the financial and political limitations.

In fact, one cannot even compare Canada and USA. USA is in a different league. Having now worked in both places, and recruited from universities in Canada, I have to say, that at least in IT, very little of Canada`s cream stays in Canada. It all goes to the USA. I worked with more top level technical Canadian talent in the USA, than I have in Canada.

Invariably, all the top technical talent (chief architects, lead engineers etc.) that we have ended up hiring on projects here are from places like China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Russia etc. Not Canada born Canadians. I am, in fact, quite disappointed in the talent pool out of Canada`s top universities in this area, that remains in Canada. They are nowhere near the stuff that comes out of the MITs and Stanfords.

The only reason Canada`s IT industry is running is because of the Chinese immigrants, who fill in the technical positions. Top level executive talent in IT here is very poor, since immigrants cannot fill those positions. Phenomenally poor. I have met quite a few CIOs and VPs, in the IT industry here, and very few of them here know what the hell they are doing. Many are completely clueless (the ones from India or Pakistan etc. are quite good, though). While in the USA, those positions, are manned (and wommaned) by very talented people.

The point about the universities being good is correct. McGill, U of T, Waterloo etc. are definitely good universities. As good as the good one in the USA. But, at least in IT, their contribution to the Canadian industry isn`t even close to what it should be, in term of human resources. Skoll being a good example. Why didn`t he he build Ebay in Canada?

Canada has done well in networking with Nortel and JDS Uniphase (which I believe is now in USA). But in software, its biggest company is Cognos, which could be swallowed by Ebay, easily.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, it needs to invest heavily in universities. The main shortage is of skilled faculty. U of T has over 80 Ph.Ds. in their IT faculty. While Pakistan probably doesn`t have 80 Ph.Ds in IT in the whole country. They will only come back from abroad, if you give them a lot of money. Which universities like LUMS do. But few others, do. If PIA pilots can be paid lakhs and lakhs of ruppees, with huge amount of facilities, then why can`t Ph.Ds. in computer science be given the same packages?

Much of the creation of Silicon Valley can be attributed to the location of Stanford and Berkeley in the area. Those universities have paid back hundreds of times the money invested in them........Two or three more NUSTs, and LUMS would serve Pakistan well.....After that people may start donating things to the universities, and a trend may start...

Anyways, an article with good intentions. But I don`t know if it presents any valuable solutions.........

pmishra man you`re prob hell`s biggest loser -- get a life moron

umermutraza -- yaar chor -- yeh sala bhot bara loser hai -- he already made quite a fool of himself by his irrelevant and silly post -- zahra mind telling us how this guys sarcasm is `appropriate` here

I would actually want the author to answer the question raised by #1 ijaz_gul.

I feel there are basically two problems.

a. The problems mentioned of funding, on a sustainable basis, can only be solved through state intervention- responsible patronage and support. History has proved it for us- world`s best academies and R&D institutes have been rooted in state support and patronage, period. Let`s stop trying to reinvent the wheel. If you have a NGO-like approach to education, you end up like- as #1 pointed out- beggars.

b. The other problem, that I feel is much more grave. For those of you who still haven`t read Mr. Hoodbhoy`s excellent article ``Why didn`t the Scientific Revolution Happen in Islam``, in a word here lies the problem: attitude. Until our society has `utilitarian` attitude towards academics, all that it will produce is coaching centers and not Universities or R&D.

{A few hundred households can pool resources to set-up one hundred research chairs at local universities while respective governments can offer incentives by modifying the tax code.}

If you think people will pool in for universities or r&d, think again, think better...

Regards
Bilal

P.S. Hoodbhoy`s article can be found at: http://chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00000104&channel=university%20ave&start=0&end=9&page=1&chapter=1

pmishra

you hit where it hurts pakistanis the most.

haha.. jalne ke baad ka smoke to dekho...!!

O GOD! i am rolling.

UmerM: You can certainly add a lot to the current topic, ``The Culture of Research & Learning.`` You`d be an excellent candidate to speak on ``Civil Behavior.``

[Universities in the developing countries are in dire need of support from the society. Likewise, researchers need the “support of a society and culture that values education.”]

I agree with the premise of your argument, but somehow I disagree with the direction it may end up taking. Just valuing education is not enough. In my opinion, it`s completely useless if you do not have enough avenues to utilize your energies. Also, your suggestions at the end are quite constructive but they are based on a few assumptions. Those unspelled out assumptions are real important for the creation of a tradition-free, healthy, progressive and civil society.

[The government plays an important role in promoting philanthropy by offering tax exemptions to individuals and firms, who donate resources to public causes. These incentives have promoted the tradition of philanthropy. For instance, by donating a database for research, a private firm can claim tax exemption for the fair market value of its donation. ]

In order to reach up to that level, the government ought to be stable, civil, farsighted and healthy.

Omar and Umer

You guys may throw sissy fits at what PMishra wrote. Your sense of outrage is understandable. But here`s the rub. Pakistani leaders and intellectuals will continue to focus not on research and education but on the issues PMishra identified.

If you worked to change that focus with as much vehemence as you displayed in your replies to PMishra, Pakistan herself may create a few McGills. Now THAT will be a real response to people like PMishra and me.

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