A Suicide in Higher Education |
The recent tragic suicide of a fifth-semester pharmacy student, Mr Awais Sultan, at the University of Lahore has raised urgent and unsettling questions about Pakistan’s higher education system. What drives students to such despair on our campuses? Where does responsibility lie? And, most critically, what structural reforms are required to prevent such tragedies from recurring?
Drawing on our collective experience of teaching, supervising, and administrating in multiple higher education institutions, we argue that this tragedy cannot be reduced to an isolated incident or an individual psychological failure. It is instead indicative of deeper institutional, social, and pedagogical breakdowns.
First, the admissions regime in high-revenue-generating academic programs prioritises quantity over suitability. Admission tests rarely assess whether students possess the aptitude or motivation required for specific disciplines. Instead, institutional incentives favour maximising enrollment, including through self-finance schemes that admit students who may not meet academic thresholds. This structural misalignment between student capacity and program demands gradually produces academic stress, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. Many students remain silent about their distress because of parental expectations and the financial sacrifices invested in their education.
Second, universities increasingly evaluate faculty performance through fluctuating admission statistics rather than teaching quality or research output. As a result, classrooms that should generate dialogue, mentorship, and intellectual growth become........