Foreign Factor in our Higher Education

Re: # 5 einsteinwallah

Yes! Technology transfer in itself should be a separate subject and Pakistan is in need to develop experts in this area. There is need to scientifically analyze the problem of technology transfer and then design our policies accordingly. In addition to merely getting degrees from foreign universities, it has other dimensions which need to be considered before an effective policy for this purpose can be developed. I think social scientists has a role to play in this area. We harp on the tune of developing technology and view it something distinct from the rest of the society. We have not paid attention to develop ourselves in social sciences. Some able social scientists should analyze problems and technology needs of our society and then suggest some ways to address the issue.

Re: # 4

Well, they have a nice word for slave mentality. It is called "Colonial Mentality". It is defined here at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_mentality

"Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. The concept essentially refers to the acceptance, by the colonised, of the culture or doctrines of the coloniser as intrinsically more worthy or superior. The subject matter is quite controversial".

I think the last sentence is there just to save face.

Also, do not you think that we should close down our own universitites if these are to be discriminated against so-called foreign Ph.Ds?

Think in social terms also, it would create class system in the society and in the end everybody would be vying to go abroad for a Ph.D. like they have done it in our elementary schools by creating local schoold systems and foreign school systems [O/A levels, etc]. Everybody tries to get his/her child admitted to western type school.

Re: # 4

Well, they have a nice word for slave mentality. It is called "Colonial Mentality". It is defined here at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_mentality

"Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. The concept essentially refers to the acceptance, by the colonised, of the culture or doctrines of the coloniser as intrinsically more worthy or superior. The subject matter is quite controversial".

I think the last sentence is there just to save face.

Also, do not you think that we should close down our own universitites if these are to be discriminated against so-called foreign Ph.Ds?

Think in social terms also, it would create class system in the society and in the end everybody would be vying to go abroad for a Ph.D. like they have done it in our elementary schools by creating local schoold systems and foreign school systems [O/A levels, etc]. Everybody tries to get his/her child admitted to western type school.

Re: # 1 You would better ask the author. He might have his interests in higher education. That said, I tend to agree with you that there should be a debate on primary and elementary level education which is in fact the very foundation of our education system. By the so-called reforms of the current government, this has also been devasted. Do you think that English should be introduced as a means of education from class 1. It may well be introduced as a compulsory language, but to make it means of teaching all other subjects is cruelty and utmost and despicable show of slave mentality. It is also widening the already wide chasm between the rich and the poor. Those who can afford to teach in English and those who cant.

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There is need to develope courses which will train people in art of technology transfer so that more industry can be started. There are many things which people learn on the job only when they are working to transfer technology. Negotiating fair royalty terms, integrating with local industry, marketing etc.

Technology R&D should be encouraged by offseting tax on any expenses incurred for R&D. India's CSIR played crucial role in technology R&D in an environment where industry was abdicating its crucial role of providing R&D leadership.

R&D and technology transfer are two important areas where even western universities may not have any offerings. Slavishly aping western universities is root cause problems of brain drain. When courses are specially designed for local requirements there is less likelyhood of brain drain.

Patent laws should encourage local inventors and discourage unnecessary technology transfers.

There is no harm in offering courses which specially train for skills in demand in west especially when employment opportunities are lacking. Once local economy takes off you can scale down on such courses.

In India I think technology training is not anymore priority. Two Indias live side by side. One which lives in abject poverty and makes do with primitive technologies and the other which serves west. I think so both help economy. One supplies cheap laboring class, the other takes pressure off from economy by finding work and subsistence from west. Now with outsourcing second class of people donot have to migrate to serve west.

I have always wondered why HEC offers more salary to someone having foreign experience and passport. Why not the same high salary is offered to someone who is equally competent but has been unlucky enough to have had decided to stay in his/her homeland? Does this not clearly represent a slave mentality?

By using the wording "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program" (http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/HRD/faculty_hiring_programs.htm) HEC is vividly expressing a slave mentality and at the same time it is insulting Pakistani citizenship.

The way and the theme in which the HEC has announced its "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program" is highly discouraging for our Pakistani PhD students to seriously pursue their studies at the local universities knowing that HEC will give higher salaries to the people having foreign qualification and experience. It is indeed the impression that one gets on visiting HEC's website.

Suppose I am a competent PhD graduate of a Pakistani university. Why I don't qualify to get a placement under the so-called "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program"? Is that because I have committed the crime of obtaining a PhD from a Pakistani university? Will not I be motivated to leave the country as soon as I get an opportunity? Unfortunately, HEC’s "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program" does not try to address this issue.

The HEC must accept that its "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program" is geared to glorify the PhD degree holders from abroad and the way and the theme in which you have announced your program at your website confirms it.

It is a very interesting and revealing article posing hard questions to the officials sitting in HEC. Can someone from HEC come up with a reply?

The "foreign factor" in Pakistani universities is shamelessly apparently both in the "Foreign Faculty Hiring Program" and the "Placement of Fresh PhD Scholars Returning from Abroad Program" which are advertised at HEC's website at:
http://www.hec.gov.pk/new/HRD/faculty_hiring_programs.htm.

These programs are designed to give undeserved advantage to incompetent researchers/academics holding foreign PhDs.

Why the HEC does not name these programs as "Competent Faculty Hiring Program" and the "Placement of Fresh Competent PhD Scholars Program"?

When I asked HEC about this official apartheid they avoided replying to my question by saying that they have other "Programs" for local PhD graduates.

HEC is following an injust recruitment policy that it has announced with shamelessness at its wesbite: http://www.hec.gov.pk.

If it is their official policy both to differentiate and to segregate between the foreign and local PhD graduates then what is the need to invest in the local PhD system.

If an entering local PhD candidate is told at the start that his/her degree is going to weigh always less then a foreign degree then why should we expect that he/she will put serious effort in research while working in a Pakistani university.

very good! only one question: Is "education" all about PH.D?
can't we begin from matriculation upwards. After all we screwed whatever little educational system we had; to talk of reforming primary and secondary education could be more relistic first and last. But do we need education at all? We have such good pied pipers? isn't education meaningless in this holy land of mullahs and despots?

very good! only one question: Is "education" all about PH.D?
can't we begin from matriculation upwards. After all we screwed whatever little educational system we had; to talk of reforming primary and secondary education could be more relistic first and last. But do we need education at all? We have such good pied pipers? isn't education meaningless in this holy land of mullahs and despots?