Why should we conduct research? In the developed world, research serves multiple purposes: foremost being that most faculty at major research universities believe in ‘publish or perish’.
Second, it gives the faculty the leverage to apply for research funding, which allows them to support graduate students, acquire equipment and travel. Third, it gives the universities financial resources, global exposure and recognition. It was more or less a similar philosophy that the HEC had embarked on years ago.
Why should we be investing and focusing on research at the expense of development? The government, which invests in research, expects to see tangible benefits. After all, is a poor country and we do not have ample resources to generously fund research like they do in the west. Universities, where 80 percent of the research is conducted in Pakistan, receive an insignificant amount of funding for research.
Therefore, criticising the quantity or quality of research is not justified. But despite the odds, researchers from Pakistan have been able to publish in the same quality journals that those from the developed world. And to top it off, growth from Pakistan has been phenomenal. The increase in the number of research publications from Pakistan is now the second highest in the world. We are publishing more papers than India does on a per capita basis.
Research is really about ‘advancing the state of knowledge’, something that takes one above and beyond the cutting edge technology or knowledge that we currently have, or leads to an economic or social benefit, whether it is in the form of development of new technology, new processes or devices. In science it is also the discovery of something new, or the development of a new theory. So whenever one has a PhD dissertation or publishes a scientific paper, the basic question is how has it advanced the state of knowledge, or how has it benefited the economy or society? If one is not able to answer that, then that research is meaningless.
In developed economies, most basic research is done in universities, but applied research is done in the industry, or jointly between the university and the industry. Unfortunately in Pakistan, the industry hardly does any research and there is no transfer of technology between university and industry. This is the missing link in the equation.
About 30 years ago, I was part of the Nasa programme on the space shuttle, the space station, and of the Mars Pathfinder, the landing of which only recently took place. Nasa is now is focusing on a manned mission to Mars. So while the US may have spent tens of billions of dollars on this over the last 50 years, and may spend tens more, they will not see the benefit perhaps for another 10 to 20 years. The developed world knows and understands that there are no immediate gains. And despite that their governments invest and the scientific community continues to do research to advance the state of technology and civilisation.
The best known example of the benefits of higher education, research and innovation is the Silicon Valley, which contributes 30 percent – $16 trillion – to the US GDP. Another example is that of MIT, where the sales of companies established by its graduates and faculty exceeds the GDP of South Korea of $1.1 trillion. The population of Finland is less than half that of Karachi, yet the sales of its one hi-tech company, Nokia, in 2006 exceeded the total exports of Pakistan. Finland has the highest density of researchers and scientists, 7600 per million, versus the 325 of Pakistan.
The benefits of higher education and research are also evident in an emerging economy like Turkey, which has higher education accessibility that is four times greater than that of Pakistan, and the density of researchers is five times higher. Just two of its technology parks, one at the Middle East Technical University, and another at the Bilkent University, have over 500 hi-tech companies and a turnover exceeding one billion dollars, double the total funding of all universities in Pakistan. Turkey has 32 technology parks associated with its universities, which were all established in the last 10 years, and another 13 are underway.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has none. The HEC has just established eight incubators at its universities, with another 8 are in incubation, and the establishment of a number of technology parks are in the pipeline near major research universities. The target of the HEC is to boost value-added hi-tech exports from Pakistan to over $10 billion per year within the next ten years.
The unfortunate thing about research is that whenever the government in any developing country like Pakistan puts money in research or science and technology institutions, they expect to see immediate returns. In research, the benefits may take five to ten years, and in higher education, the tangible benefits may take a whole generation of up to 20 years. But despite the phenomenal growth in higher education and research in Pakistan in the last 10 years, we are still in our infancy and are only beginning to walk.
In another five to ten years, with continued support and investment by the government and other stakeholders, the higher education sector will be running. It will only be then that the nation will see the tangible benefits of research and innovation, and of higher education, towards the socio-economic development of Pakistan, towards building societies and communities, towards building future leadership, and towards a prosperous Pakistan.
The writer is chairperson of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Email: jlaghari@ hec.gov.pk

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