Khanzada
The system of higher education in Pakistan is on the edge of a self-imposed crisis, not because of a shortage of talent or funds, but because of the extreme failure in administrative coordination. A non-functional calendar and institutional timetable conflict each year to squander valuable national resources, frustrate student dreams, and even subvert the very basis of our system of merit-based admission. The essence of this disaster is the tardy performance of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) and its disastrous fallout in all other faculties in the nation.
All our discourse in education has been dominated at least for decades by the debate about the quality of curriculum, development of faculty, and infrastructure. However, none of these developments will provide their due fruits unless the underlying mechanism of student admission is in a state of chaos and inequity. The fact that a student is leaving college and going to the university, which is a significant shift in their life, is now controlled by a disorder that is not beneficial to anyone and is punitive to everyone.
It is a tragic and foreseeable situation. Students who do well in their F.Sc. are left with a long and limbo period between finishing their studies and getting the MDCAT. They are admitted to other prestigious undergraduate courses in biotechnology, biochemistry, pharmacy, microbiology, and other branches of science as a practical reserve. Through their high scores, they rightly occupy leading slots in merit lists. After the late MDCAT results are announced and they have qualified in a medical or dental college, they renege on their original commitments. This habitually sensible personal decision is built up into a system catastrophe.
The effects are hard and complex. The universities are left with empty seats deep into the academic semester, and the chances of filling the vacant seats are virtually impossible. These are not merely vacant seats, but there are missed chances of thousands of other worthy students who were shoved to the bottom of the merit list, or they were completely turned away. Such an empty niche translates to under-utilization of the faculty, overstretched resources, and watered-down learning atmosphere, which is too much of a financial and operational burden to schools and colleges that already have tight budgets to consider.
Besides the institutional cost, there is a greater human cost. Think of the student who, with otherwise slightly lower marks, fails to gain entry in a B.Sc. programme due to a seat that was occupied by a future medical student. Such a student will surely lose a whole academic year, undergoing severe mental pressure and demoralization. In the meantime, the student who switches between disciplines has a disruptive academic transition. This churn constitutes a national waste of human assets in which talent is not managed, time goes down the drain, and potential is squandered just because of sheer administrative inefficiency.
The combination of delayed testing and uncoordinated admissions is fast turning university enrolment into one of the most stressful and wasteful flashpoints in our education system.
It is not malicious intent that is the root cause of this yearly mess, but simply a lack of coordination that is glaring. There is a severe lack of synchronization between the timescale of general degree university admissions and the medical entry examinations. The MDCAT, as well as other important entrance exams, are usually organized very late, and the results are announced after most of the universities have finished with their admission. This pressurizes students into keeping their bets low and universities into dealing with a porous, unstable student body.
There can no longer be the status quo. It is a waste of our national educational venture; it costs us talent, equity, and credibility. A new generation of students cannot afford to work their way through this mangled labyrinth. This is not solved by some complicated, revolutionary policy, but a simple, joint synchronization, a principle that any engineer or administrator knows as the key to efficiency in a system.
Thus, there is an immediate need to reform it radically. To start with, there is a need to synchronise the admission calendar nationwide. It needs to be worked up with the combined powers of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) in consultation with all provincial governments and the heads of all universities. The most important guideline should be that all the major entrance tests, including the MDCAT and others, are done and the results announced prior to the general university admissions.
Second, the MDCAT timeline has to be made a lot earlier, with the examination preferably taken four to six weeks after F.Sc. examinations. Such a mere shift in the calendar of testing would bring a certain sense to students and normalcy to institutions.
Third, in order to deal with residual uncertainty, they should promote the use of effective waiting lists or conditional admission at universities. In case of vacancy, a seat must go to the next candidate in the list without wastage of resources, and there should not be a student trapped without a second choice.
Lastly, technology should be used to introduce transparency and efficiency. An undergraduate admission portal, which is centralized, incorporates all the public universities and monitors the applications in real time, would reduce the chance of errors in manual processing and gives the clearer picture of how students are moving so that dynamic seat management can be undertaken.
Delayed testing coupled with disjointed admissions is rapidly making university enrolment one of the most stressful and wasteful points of sale in our educational system. This existential ineffectiveness is an even greater bane of our national future than many would care to admit; it undermines the confidence in the system and kills hope.
Being a person who managed more than a hundred graduate scholars, who has been supervising academic processes in a major university, I see no unsolvable problem in this. It involves the HEC, PEC and PMDC to come out of their silos to consider this as a common and urgent concern. It mandates vice-chancellors to lobby together as a group towards a standardized structure. It is a requirement that the convening authority and political will be furnished by the federal ministry.
There are two educational futures of Pakistan. One just carries on with business as usual- characterized by empty seats, undermined merit, and low institutional integrity. The other takes reform, synchronization, and equity, bringing in a new wave of making the merit of each student count, the value of each university seat, and clockwork efficiency with which the mechanism should be driven. The future of the academic and professional world will be determined by our selection. We should be bold to make wise decisions because it is in these decisions that we can establish the base of a truly fair and successful knowledge economy.
The writer of this article is a Professor in Civil Engineering Department University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar. khanshahzada@uetpeshawar.edu.pk
