The research culture in Pakistan has been a failure causing a great loss to the nation. Not even a single publication of HEI’s of Pakistan has gained international recognition. This report aims to analyze, discuss and recommend solutions to this national affair.

1. A Report about Crippled
Research Culture in Pakistan
Group members:
• Mohsin Ali (fa16-bse-047)
• Danyal (fa16-bse-187)
• M. Usman (fa16-bse-033)
• M.Umer Tariq (fa16-bse-029)

2. Executive Summary:
• In the current Knowledge Era, we cannot deny the significant role of research and
innovation in contributing towards the country’s progress and economic growth.
• If we look at the scenario of research in Pakistan in general and research leading to
innovation and commercialization in particular, the situation is in need of significant
improvement.
• It is important to make a strategic move in the right direction, based on a comprehensive
understanding of the current situation – this is where the present study makes its
contribution.
• The research sample represents HEIs in both public and private sector, across various
disciplines and in all the provinces in Pakistan.

3. • The current report highlights presents critical analysis of the major issues and key
challenges faced by Pakistani research culture.
• There are many problems the research culture in Pakistan has to face. These
include bad policies made by HEC that asks for the quantity research papers
instead of their quality. Irresponsible and unprofessional attitude of research group
HODS also facilitates the issue. Besides that, the human, physical and financial
resources provided for research are not impressive.
• HEC should be reviewing its policies and make quality its priority as more quantity
and less quality puts no good to the show. Along with this, research individuals
should be more conscious about their roles and duties and work with sincerity.

4. Introduction

5. Introduction
• The research culture in Pakistan has been a failure causing a great loss to the
nation.
• Not even a single publication of HEI’s of Pakistan has gained
international recognition
• This report aims to analyze, discuss and recommend solutions to this national
affair.

6. Background:
• Pakistani HEIs have not been performing well since last decade.
• Pakistani HEI rankings have been dropping since last decade from 48 to 95. ( Source:
Global Competitive Index)
• The quality of research
products produced is not
satisfactory in fact, it has
become quite sloppy

7. Statement of Problem:
The sloppy state of research activity in Pakistani HEI has caused a lot decline in Research
Performance of Pakistan. Pakistan can no more afford to ignore the good research brings
in and needs to take this issue seriously.
Significance of Study:
This report provides logical and statistical information provided in discussion portion helps
understand the situation well. This report also suggests effective solutions to these
problems for our research team and other researchers of Pakistan.
Scope of Study:
This report is general in nature for its audience. It is written for our research team but it can
also come handy for other researchers all over Pakistan.

8. Methods of study:
Some methods of study are as follows:
• New Reports on this topic.
• Quality views of critics over internet blogs.
• Extracted information from International Rankings and statistical data from sources like:
Times Higher Education.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UIS online database
The Higher Education Commission
Higher Education Statistics, HEC Annual Report 2013-14
Global Competitive Index

9. Results and Findings:
Through conducting this detailed research, many causes for this impotence of Research
industry in Pakistan have been discovered. This chapter presents the key findings and
results of the study.

10. Number of research faculty:
According to this data from HEC, the total percentage of PhD faculty available in both public
and private sector HEIs becomes 26.86% of the total population, with
public sector having a Larger number (24340)
of PhDs as compared to those in the private
sector (10104).

11. In order to know the amount of faculty active in research
we need to look at the opinion shared by the faculty
members at HEIs through the faculty survey (see Figure
1) – it indicates whether the faculty perceived the
available PhD faculty as actively engaged in research or
not.

12. In order to understand the human resource scenario for conducting research in
Pakistan, it may be insightful to look at the regional comparisons of the researchers’
population (see Table 2), where Pakistan ranks at 80th position as compared to some
other Asian countries in the region – for instance, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, China

13. Research Quality
Researchers are more concerned
with the number of their
publications rather than the
quality of their research.
Researchers are more concerned with the number of their publications rather
than the quality of their research.
This table explains the situation of Pakistani research pretty well. The country
has moved down the ladder, i.e. from 48th to 95th Rank on international
rankings.

14. Overview of Lab Facilities
The faculty members’ views are presented regarding whether the HEIs have
adequate physical facilities for conducting experimental research or not (Figure2).

15. Amount of Financial Resources Available for Research
Funding support is an important factor in research success of Pakistan. Table below presents
a comparative of Gross Expenditure on Research with the countries in the Asian region,
where Singapore (at 16th) has a leading position.

16. Discussion

17. Research for the sake of promotion
The HEC’s fallacious policies also contribute to frustration among researchers in Pakistan.
Most of the PhDs in Pakistan are employed in universities controlled by the HEC. The HEC
did introduce a Tenure Track System (TTS) with high pay scales and other incentives for
PhDs. It was meant to be based purely on performance in teaching and research but that is
not happening. Universities in Pakistan require a certain number of publications along with a
PhD for promotion. So, the quality is deliberately ignored and quantity is preferred.

18. Unprofessional researchers
• HODS (Heads of Department) are lax in pushing their departmental colleagues on
research. Communicating the research and collaborating for future work are two main
ingredients for carrying out quality research.
• In Pakistan, universities pay no attention to communicating and disseminating the research
of their teachers. The reasons for this are much the same as those detailed above: indolence,
poor networking and relations, jealousy and just an entrenched culture that has accepted
mediocrity as its hallmark and has long been hopeless in the fight against it.

19. Conclusions

20. Research Activates in Pakistan have been a failure due to a lot of reasons.
These reasons are:
• HEC's fallacious policies
• Low percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for science and
development.
• Corruption by HODS of research groups.
• Less human, physical resources and financial resources.
• Government’s lack of reasonable interest in Research and Development.
• Lack of interaction and linkage with the Research group hierarchy.

21. Recommendations
This is one of the most significant sections of the report. Key recommendations are
presented based on the findings and conclusions of the study. It presents the key
recommendations (the way forward and the action points) so as to enhance the research and
innovation potential in the country.

22. • Promotion Policies: HEC should review its promotion policy and make quality its main criteria
for promotion.
• Keep Check: HEC should keep an eye on TTS faculty to ensure that they are working
properly.
• Quality emphasis: HEC should emphasize on quality of research rather than quantity.
• More resources: HEC should enhance research capacity and number of qualified human
resource.
• More work and fewer egos: There should be proper interaction between team members and
related departments of research instead of ego and jealousy.
• Performance Evaluation: HEC should do proper performance evaluation of research groups
on job.

23. Bibliography
• This is a list of related material to help you out learn more about the subject.
Daily Times Paper:
https://dailytimes.com.pk/135627/decadence-research-culture-pakistan/
• The Dawn News:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1141829
https://www.dawn.com/news/1257273
https://www.dawn.com/news/1218751
• SciDev.NET:
http://www.scidev.net/global/r-d/opinion/why-pakistan-lags-behind-in-research.html

24. References
• Table 1: Higher Education Statistics, HEC Annual Report 2013-14
(p. 154)
• Table 2: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UIS Online Database
(2004–12); World Bank (for reference to population)
• Table 3: Time Higher Education, Best universities in Pakistan 2018
• Table 4: Global Competitive Index
• Table 5: The Higher Education Commission
• Table 6: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UIS online database (2004–
13); World Bank (for reference to population)
Tables:

25. Figures:
• Figure 1: Short term study of tertiary education sector system by Roshni Kumari (p. 31)
• Figure 2: Short term study of tertiary education sector system by Roshni Kumari (p. 32)

26. Appendices
• HEI: Higher Education Institutes
• HEC: Higher Education Commission
• TTS: Tenure Track System

27. Thank You