Prof Fred Hayward, an eminent US education expert, recently published a book titled ‘Transforming Higher Education in Asia and Africa’. One chapter of this book is devoted to Pakistan, and it makes fascinating reading of the ups and downs of the higher education sector during the last 20 years.

Prof Hayward is a former professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and presently a consultant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2003-2008, Prof Hayward led a USAID team to carry out a comprehensive study of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) programmes.

The team members made several visits to Pakistan and visited 18 universities and research institutes in Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Lahore, Karachi and other cities to determine the impact that HEC reforms were having on the ground, particularly focusing on the quality aspects of these reforms.

Students, faculty members, administrative staff, technicians and vice chancellors as well as officials of the HEC, the Ministry of Education and others were interviewed over a 12-month period. The result was a 153-page report by USAID, which paid glowing tributes to the reforms introduced by the HEC and the impact they were having on improving the quality of teaching and research in our universities.

The report concluded with the following remarks: “What is most impressive is the breadth of reforms – faculty development, quality assurance, infrastructure rehabilitation, information technology staff training, research facilities, academic publications, increased access, improved accountability, expansion of campuses, and improved salaries and working conditions – and its insistence on quality improvement throughout the system. We applaud the leadership of the HEC for its........

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