The new PhD policy a great challenge

The HEC’s new PhD policy has introduced significant amendments in the admission criteria of PhD programmes with the intention of improving the quality of research and enhancing the market value of teaching. However, achieving policy effectiveness with improved research quality is one the challenging tasks.

The proposed need to introduce the new policy was to address the disparity between the country’s higher education system and industry where an average graduate has few marketable skills. According to the policy, the minimum requirement of admission is reduced from 18 to 16 years in terms of years of study. The MPhil degree was a prerequisite to pursue the PhD programme earlier, but the current policy discontinues the requirement. Now the students, after completion of a BS program (Bachelor of Studies) over four years can directly obtain admission in a PhD programme. The policy added that students pursuing PhD directly after BS would have to complete more credit hours than those who had qualified an MPhil degree. Despite this, the students are also allowed to complete MPhil if studied courses meet the standard of doctoral degree.

Furthermore, students who directly pursue a PhD need to work 48 credit hours, but for the students who have completed MPhil in the same discipline, the required credit hours for PhD could be reduced up to 50 percent by the universities.

Moreover, regardless of subjects studied in BS, the students can pursue PhD in another discipline. Also the policy discontinues the requirement of sending the PhD dissertation to foreign experts for review, rather it can be sent to local experts now as well.

The maximum duration of PhD degree completion is eight years and the minimum time to earn the degree is three years. The students are required to spend the first two-years of PhD studies in their home country. The minimum cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) required is 3.0 on a 4-point scale in each semester. It was also added that the MPhil leading to PhD program would be no longer continued.

Researchers report that the new policy has been launched unilaterally and experts of academia have reservations about policy execution. While framing and launching the policy, the actual stakeholders, such as expert academics and administrations of public and private sector universities, were not taken on board. Furthermore, the big challenge lies in the maintenance of the quality of BS degrees awarded by the affiliated colleges.

The aftermaths of not attaining quality in the highest degree, the PhD, are quite disastrous. This would degrade the PhD qualified candidates’ market value and subsequently lead to the frustration among youths. The successful outcomes of policy programmes would require critical awareness of one’s history, socio-economic and above all political structure and their influences in the existing scenario

According to the policy “The overall goal of the policy framework is that PhD graduates from Pakistani universities should possess expertise in his or her field of study, should be able to conduct high quality research”.  But it is argued by universities that they are not provided sufficient support, the grant provided by HEC to run the university expenses is typically inadequate and most of the universities lack laboratories, research facilities and adequate grants. Thus attaining quality in most of the universities is not expected.

And, the students who change disciplines in a PhD programme, understanding theoretical foundations of the new discipline along with gaining mastery in the research skills required for a PhD candidate would be rather doubtful and it would lead to compromise the quality of PhDs. While endorsing the above facts, Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed added that the academics from Higher Education Institutions were not invited for consultancy over planning and drafting the policy, and it would create confusions to execute this American model in the existing political structure of Pakistan.

Pakistan since its birth has immersed into the deep-rooted political system. The current policy highlighted that “Since the PhD is a highly specialized degree, it is intended that only those Higher Education Institutions (“HEIs”) that possess resources to offer quality education at the highest level should offer PhD degree programs.” Under such political pressure, it is unlikely to stop the sub-standard politicized universities from terminating their PhD programmes.

Shahid Siddiqui (2016) in his book “Education policies in Pakistan: Politics, projections, and practices” emphasized that one of the reasons of the failure of the prior policies is the lack of ‘political will’ to uplift the education sector. Such influences are shown by political recruitment of man\y teachers, pay disbursement among ghost teachers, uncontrolled cheating culture in the examination centres, very low investment of GDP on education, discontinuing ‘Iqra fund’ declared for education etc. In this regard, the genuine implementation of the policy requires favorable socio-political conditions. With failure in the socio-political reforms, the expansion of sub-standard universities would go higher; which would increase quantitative expansion in the number of PhDs, and again the quality will be compromised.

In addition to this, it needs to be pondering over the Covid-19 effects on our education system. For more than one year many higher educational institutions have been struggling with technological issues, and still could not report progresss towards blended or online learning culture. Rather than bridging the teacher-pupil gap on the advanced learning platform, the noticed gap has widened.

The aftermaths of not attaining quality in the highest degree, the PhD, are quite disastrous. This would degrade the PhD qualified candidates’ market value and subsequently lead to the frustration among youths. The successful outcomes of policy programmes would require critical awareness of one’s history, socio-economic and above all political structure and their influences in the existing scenario.