HEC University Rankings Controversy in Pakistan
By Riaz Haq
CA
www.riazhaq.com
The Higher Education Commission in Pakistan released its first and only ranking of universities in Pakistan in October 2006. Prior to this HEC initiative, there had been no formal attempts by any public or private group to establish a set of criteria and judge Pakistani institutions of higher learning. While this is a laudable effort, it is clearly not the be-all and end-all of the ranking process.
As expected, there is a genuine controversy swirling in Pakistan on the HEC ranking methodology and the results. This ongoing controversy may have prompted the HEC to skip the annual rankings in 2007.
Since the ranking has only been done once, it is hard to say if the standards of any of the institutions on the list, including the NED Engineering University, have risen or declined. You need at least two years of data to make any conclusions based on the criteria used by the HEC.
A panel discussion about "Declining Academic Standards at NEDUET", planned for the upcoming NED Alumni Convention 2008 in the US state of Connecticut, apparently accepts the NED University's ranking and assessment of HEC on its face value. Clearly, there is a need for further exploration of this subject before reaching any definitive conclusions about "declining standards" or making any recommendations.
Why Rank Universities?
Some readers might ask why should universities be ranked? I am not certain as to the HEC rationale for it, but I can see several reasons why it is a useful exercise. First, it helps the students and their parents select the institution they should attend based on a set of criteria. Second, if the criteria are clearly laid out and objectively measured, it helps the universities identify areas of improvement to become better at educating students and conducting research. Third, it can be used by the industry and the employers to target specific students, programs and projects for hiring and research.
Ranking Criteria
One-size-fits-all ranking criteria that lump together graduate and undergraduate programs in a variety of unrelated disciplines are not particularly helpful to any of the potential users including students, parents, employers, researchers etc.
As an example, the ranking criteria used by US News and World Report, the most widely used rankings in the United States, separate out undergraduate programs from graduate programs. The graduate program criteria have heavy emphasis on research and publications while the undergraduate program criteria do not.
USNWR Undergraduate Criteria:
1. Peer Assessment 25% weight
2. Student Retention Rate 20%
3. Faculty Resources: 20%
4. Admission Acceptance Selectivity: 15%
5. Financial Resources: 10%
6. Graduation Rate: 5%
7. Alumni Giving: 5%
USNWR Graduate Program Criteria:
1. Peer Assessment (25%)
2. Recruiter Assessment (15%)
3. Mean GRE Score (6.75%)
4. Acceptance Rate (3.25%)
5. Student-Faculty Ratio (7.5%)
6. Faculty with National Academy of Engineering Membership (7.5%)
7. Doctoral Degrees Awarded (6.25%)
8. Research Activity (25%)
HEC's Ranking Criteria for NEDUET Assessment:
Students 5.52/17 (NED received 0/4.0 on number of PhDs produced, 0.44/5.0 on Student admission selectivity, 1.12/3 on M.Phil/16+ yrs ed)
Facilities 4.4/15 (NED got 0.88/4 on number of books, 0.30/2 on equipment costing over $2m)
Finances 1.5/15 (NED scored 0/4 on non-recurring expenditure/student, 0.05/2 amount of money generated through own resources)
Faculty 4.44/27 (NED at 2.28/9 on ratio of Ph.D.s on faculty, 0.04/4 on research grants)
Research 2.79/26 ( ED got 0.17/4 on research published, 0.10/3 on research papers/faculty)
Total Score 18.65/100
Conclusion
With a score of 18.65/100, NED University, the oldest institution of higher learning with many successful alumni and an illustrious history, is ranked at number 10 out of the 13 engineering universities in Pakistan. NED University has been assessed by HEC on criteria that favor universities with strong graduate programs that award a large number of PhD and MS degrees. It ignores recruiter (employer) assessment that speaks to the quality of NED University alumni. It also discounts the accomplishments of NEDians diaspora that attest to the quality of education they received at NEDUET. Clearly, the NEDUET's low ranking is based on its lack of a strong graduate program. Under the current HEC criteria, more PhD faculty and students enrolled means higher ranking. More research papers means bigger score. It may be useful to encourage more and bigger graduate programs. But there is a danger in playing the numbers game. The quantity must not be allowed to degrade quality. Targeting more PhDs and research papers production by HEC and its reward system has come under heavy criticism by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy. It has led to lowered standards for PhDs and instances of plagiarized papers well documented by Dr. Hoodbhoy.
The Way Forward
HEC has made a good start by attempting to formalize a process by which academic institutions can be judged and ranked. But the HEC must not stop at rev 0. It must continue fine-tuning the ranking criteria and the process to provide better and more useful feedback to the institutions, make them more competitive internationally, and help the students become better prepared to make greater contribution to society. I think it's important for the HEC to establish separate criteria for undergraduate and graduate engineering programs to be fair to all colleges and universities including the NED University of Engineering and Technology.
There should be two separate rankings published for undergraduate and graduate engineering programs. These should be completely separate from non-engineering universities. At the same time NEDUET should work to beef up its graduate program with more resources in terms of faculty, facilities, student enrollment, research and publications. The NED alumni can, and should, help in this endeavor with an endowment fund and industry connections around the world.
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