The state of higher education: Pakistan in comparison with the UK
After partition, Pakistan, an independent state came into being in 1947 and inherited a colonial university system, created by the British. The fundamental features of this system during that era were that it was under-financed, bureaucratic, and mediocre and was teaching rather than research oriented.
Just then, the country had a poorly educated population and few schools or universities. Even though the education system has expanded to a great extent since then, debate continues about the curriculum, and, apart from a few elite institutions, quality remains a critical concern of educators till date.
In Pakistan, higher education is referred to as the education above grade 12, which normally corresponds to the age bracket of 17 to 23 years. This system in Pakistan is made up of two main sectors: the university/Degree Awarding Institutes (DAI) sector and the affiliated colleges sector. The Higher Education Commission is an autonomous apex body responsible for the distribution of public funds from the federal government to universities and DAIs and accrediting their degree programs. Colleges are funded and regulated through provincial legislatures, but follow the curriculum of the HEC funded universities/DAIs with which they are associated. While the HEC primarily funds public universities, it has in recent times also opened a limited number of avenues for making funds available to private sector universities for research and infrastructure development as well.
International comparisons in higher education and training with developed countries such as the United Kingdom are of great importance in order to understand the recent innovations and developme...
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...rial and scientific revolutions combined with its imperial history and the absolute permanence of its ancient universities are significant factors to recognize why these institutions are renowned worldwide.
The University of Cambridge, for instance, has produced 83 Nobel Laureates to date which is more than any other University in the world. The standing of British institutions is maintained today by their nonstop stream of outstanding research output.
In order to increase the standard of higher education in the country, Professor Hoodbhoy has proposed some creditable suggestions; requiring all graduate applicants to take the GRE, instituting tenure and administrative review; re-starting student unions on campus; stimulating cultural and social discourse and, most interestingly, attracting Indian teachers are a few steps that can be taken on an immediate level.
After having begun their argument with much criticism of the higher level education system, Hacker and Dreifus, construct blueprints for how the system can be repaired. Engaging students with universal enrollment is where they begin, but with that must come an effort from professors to teach well and
America’s educational system seems to be at a steady decline as each year school systems argue over the proper way for students to receive a quality education the correct way. With so many differences in opinion about current lecture and testing techniques future generations can only hope for an educational miracle. The underlying question everyone seems to be asking though is how does one provide a quality education for the entirety of America?
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
President Ronald Reagan once described America as, “A Nation at Risk,” He was addressing this statement to the education department thirty years ago and meant it as a wake-up call. He was aware that the United States was falling behind in education and needed to take action in order to prevent the demise of the country. Reagan correctly predicted the grim fate of America if education did not see improvement. Today, research finds that American education is failing to provide the necessary skills to succeed in college and various careers. The quality of education in America is a growing issue and every year graduate students are finding it more difficult to obtain high paying jobs and start his or her career. According to studies conducted globally, the curriculum in America is not as advanced and years behind international schools in countries such as China and Japan. There is much controversy in government over what can be done to reverse the situation in public schools but possible solutions that have been suggested are hiring more qualified teachers, more classroom time, and investing more money into education.
Hutcheson, P. (2011). Goals for United States higher education: from democracy to globalisation. History Of Education, 40(1), 45-57.
Reforms in education always occur when the educational system is in a period of unrest or crisis. Century after century show how hotly debated this topic is. Moreover, individuals, including, business leaders, parents, school boards and presidents feel they have the right ingredient to solve the problems of our educational system. It is unfortunate, but history is repeating itself, and we are now in a period of crisis in the education system in the 21st century (Tyack and Cuban, 1995).
The education system has been a controversial issue among educators. Requirements of school do not let student choose what they want to study for their future. It’s a big issue to force student study specific curriculums, which don’t help them improve, and what they like to create something. Educators choose a general system for education to all students which based on general knowledge. Intelligent or genius students have to be in that system of education, which doesn’t let them improve their creativity. Educators attempt to change that system to make it better, but their changing was not that great to be an example for the world. Also, did that change qualify education system to compete other systems or not? In some examples and reasons have been made me agree with some of points from Gatto’s and Edmunson’s and disagree them.
Community colleges and universities all belong to higher education, but actually they do not have the same requirements for their students. Peter Sacks is a college teacher. With Sacks’ teaching experiences, he believes that “nobody in the system had much of a stake in shoring up educational standards” which shows his dissatisfied about the current education system. Sacks thinks higher education should only be provided to students who can do excellent job on studying. However, only a few universities hold their applicants to this high requirement. Indeed, the phenomenon that Sacks finds is correct, many community colleges and universities have low requirements for students, but Sacks does not see the good part of this low requirements. If higher education includes different requirements, more people will be able to accept better education than high school, and this will be helpful for themselves and society.
Ultimately, it is apparent that there are a lot of issues to address in order to establish a successful education. The biggest issue is the affordability of schools because it determines the quality of one’s education. The quality of teachers and the resources available to all students will be addressed once the tuition is affordable because it will close the gap in the accessibility of education within the lower, middle and upper-class. Successful education establishes the path of human and economic development that will promote new industries, technologies, innovations and ideas for a better future.
It is noticeable that the system of education is changing from time to time based on financial issues and how the world is growing. In the past, individuals taught the education system from the oldest member of the family to children, and their members were charging fees from the families that sent their children to them. Which meant that education was an important thing in all ages. Nowadays, the education is shaped to an official system run by professional people in governments and many countries invest high amounts towards education which makes evidence of how important it is in our current life. Every country has a different system of education based on their financial stability, government infrastructure and the standard of the government officials. It is noticeable that there is a big difference between the education in developing countries and the prevailing system in developed countries .In my essay I will discuss some reasons for these differences...
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
Arunachalam, Subbiah. "University World News - CHINA: Investment in Tertiary Education on the Rise." University World News - University World Home Page. 22 June 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. .
Lohmar, that in higher education, it is possible to see three degrees which are Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s and Doctoral Studies.The first university degree, Bachelor's, can generally be attained in three years of full-time study. The higher education system comprises universities and polytechnics, in which the admission requirement is a secondary general or vocational diploma. The ground rule is that the universities, their faculties or departments select their own students based on matriculation examination grades, the school-leaving certificate and/or entrance examinations (Ministry of Education, 2005) All studying is free of charge.
Martinez, Luis. "The Study Abroad Advantage." Diverse: Issues In Higher Education 28.21 (2011): 25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
One reason why increasing tuition fee in universities and colleges is not favorable is everyone believes education is really important for everyone. However, high tuition fee makes the education become a big equity problem. There is an ancient saying in my home country China that goes, “It probably takes about ten years for a tree to grow up, but it takes maybe one hundred years to educate a generation of people.” It emphasizes not only the difficulty but also the great significance of education. With the economic globalization gaining momentum, it goes without saying that the competition in the job market will only become more and more fierce. And in today’s world, without a proper education, it is very har...