LAHORE - There is a dire need to bring revolutionary reforms in higher education system to put the country on road to progress.
Talking to APP on Sunday, Punjab University Sociology Professor and former principal Aitchison College Dr Muhammad Hafeez said that proper management of workload of teachers, increase number of teachers in proportion to workload with a focus on research on indigenous issues, keeping the number of BS students at minimal levels in universities, reduce the number of students in MA programmes and MPhil programmes should be the main features of reforms.
He said that PhD programmes should be focused on increasing research output, adding that universities of public and private sectors should emphasize quality and not quantity, while the standard of higher education must be raised.
He added that admission criteria of public sector universities was not appropriate in accordance with the needs of the modern era as it did not evaluate capabilities of the students belonging to diverse backgrounds.
To a question regarding international affairs, he said the economy of United States of America (USA) was declining as about 25 countries have ruled out dollar for trade which caused 0.7 percent decrease in US economy.
Per capita income of the US was ebbing away, Dr Hafeez said and added that US economy had also shrinked during last few years which would further shrink as China and Russia were also considering to rule out dollar for trade.
He said that China’s economy was growing with a brisk pace which would emerge as number one economy during next five years after getting easy access to Gwadar port for its exports to global market.
Dr Hafeez said the Pak-China Economic Corridor (CPEC) had gained eccentric point in the relations between Pakistan and China, which would link Gwadar Port to southwestern Pakistan to China’s northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang, via highways networks, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas.
He said that the distance from Gwadar to Khunjrab was only about 2500 km, adding that after the construction of CPEC the distance from Gwadar to China would be 85 percent shorter than the current route through which China transport its oil.
Regarding a question on forthcoming presidential elections in America, he said that he did not see any major shift in policy even if Hillary Clinton win the next presidential election. He pointed out that America would keep on trying to neutralize the growing influence of China in the world.
He said that Pakistan, Iran and Turkey should lead the Islamic world on the platform of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) by resolving their issues and should raise the voice against the human right violations in Kashmir, Palestine, and Myanmar. To a question regarding electoral reforms, he said that process to introduce electoral reforms in the country was underway which should be implemented before the next general election.