Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy decries wide-scale publications of substandard research works

Publications of fake research papers needs to be immediately stopped in Pakistan, where every other professor seems to be publishing 500 to 600 research papers in a jiffy.

Scientist Prof Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy said this on Saturday as he addressed that the inauguration ceremony of the Usman Institute Technology (UIT) University on Saturday. The former Usman Institute of Technology has turned into a varsity after the Sindh government upgraded its status to a degree-awarding institute.

Earlier, the UIT was affiliated with the NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Dr Hoodbhoy shared that earlier, publishing 12 research papers was considered a huge achievement but now academics were trying to get 100s of their papers published, resulting in large-scale substandard research works.

Due to the trend of publishing substandard research papers in large quantity, the speaker asserted, those professors and students were being discouraged who worked hard and consumed time in publishing quality papers.

He added that the phenomenon of publishing more and more research papers in a short span of time had devalued research work in Pakistan. “This needs to be stopped.”

The chief guest at the ceremony was Sindh Governor Imran Ismail. He said, “The Youth is the future of our country. I am happy to come to such institutions, which are equipped with all the technological facilities for which we send our children to study abroad.”

Addressing the governor, Dr Hoodbhoy said that the software exports of India this year had been $160 billion and Pakistan’s were $2 billion. “We don’t have a space programme. Indians have reached Mars. Their pharmaceutical export is around $30 billion and Pakistan’s is $300 million,” he remarked. “These are painful facts and cannot be changed unless we change the higher education system in the country.”

To this, the governor responded that such a comparison of Pakistan with India was unfair because the size of both the economies was different. He, however, agreed that Pakistan was below its potential and there were ways to improve that.

“The largest programme our government initiated was Kamyaab Jawan Programme which will fill the gaps in the market,” Ismail said. He explained that the students in financial duress were unable to pursue their dreams and the graduates generally did not want to exert pressure on their families and that was why the government in its Kamyaab Jawan Programme was offering Rs50 million loan to them.

The governor said that the government had also initiated the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, in which low-cost housing was being offered to the public and then there was the Sehat Card Programme with which the public could have medical treatment costing up to Rs1 million. Unfortunately, he said, the programme could not be implemented in Sindh as the provincial government was not willing to participate in the programme.

Ismail opined that wealth making in Pakistan was considered a crime. He, however, added that not all businessmen and successful people were plunderers. One should not consider a successful businessman corrupt, he said.

The governor congratulated UIT University Chancellor Hussain Hasham and the board members on the occasion.

Acting Vice Chancellor Dr Shoaib Zaidi said the UIT has been serving since 1994 as a non-profit organisation. He told the event that more than 4,000 graduates of the institute were serving in reputed firms not only in Pakistan but also internationally.

He said that their students had designed six chips from a design process to actual fabrication, which was an extremely rare process for undergraduate students. He added that a top-rated firewall company in the world, Palo Alto Networks, had the name of UIT on its website included among academies in Pakistan.

Political and corporate leaders, and industrial dignitaries, including the board members of the Usman Memorial Foundation, were also present at the ceremony.