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Saturday November 23, 2024
Dr Ayesha Razzaque
Dr Ayesha Razzaque

  • November 23, 2024

    The new higher-ed reality

    For last eight years, HEC's budget has been virtually stagnant in absolute terms

  • October 31, 2024

    Zen and the art of reading

    Statista Market Insights put Pakistan’s total book sales at a paltry $60 million

  • October 18, 2024

    The spectrum of violence

    Students, progressive groups – let’s call them the ‘Toothless’ – are usually at receiving end

  • October 15, 2024

    How to raise fact-checkers — learning from Finland

    If they had, his reasoning went, someone would have seen them by now

  • September 28, 2024

    A day at the cat cafe

    In one university , the statutory positions of controller, registrar, and treasurer have not been filled since November 2022

  • September 21, 2024

    A critical mass of talent

    If mass of material is below this threshold , reaction will not be self-sustaining and fizzle out

  • September 03, 2024

    The university camel race

    Six universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are operating without any VC at all

  • August 21, 2024

    The great tuition debate

    Public schools are inexpensive in relative, and arguably absolute, terms

  • August 02, 2024

    When education meets land grab

    A representational image showing the building of Bacha Khan Medical College in Mardan. — BKMC/Facebook/FileImagine this: A bully enters a man’s...

  • July 19, 2024

    Med to math: PEC’s misguided curveball

    Decision was disseminated via letter to VCs, rectors, and heads of all higher education institutions in Pakistan

  • July 10, 2024

    Got taxes? Post-budget survival guide

    We have known for decades that there is a need to broaden the base of taxpayers in the country

  • July 01, 2024

    Telco to tech: the shift in education’

    For as long as I can remember, among engineering disciplines, electrical engineering has been the top choice

  • June 20, 2024

    Pakistan and the skills report

    2024 Global Skills Report report places Pakistan at 84 out of larger cohort of 109 countries in global skills proficiency rankings

  • June 06, 2024

    Universities and the financial tightrope

    SIFC announced that federal government would now require provinces to match federal contributions to higher education

  • May 20, 2024

    Welcome to the summer of AI

    April saw the release of Meta’s Llama 3 generative large language model, notable for being open-source

  • May 03, 2024

    A divisive frame of mind

    The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority headquarters can be seen in this picture released on November 4, 2021. — Facebook/NEPRAWould you...

  • April 18, 2024

    Daanish dilemma: beyond the fold

    Today, a total of 11,000 children are attending Daanish schools in Punjab

  • April 08, 2024

    The pursuit of uniformity

    Metropabad was a sought-after place to live, which is why NUT – a public university – was fortunate to attract some of the most qualified...

  • March 29, 2024

    Defunding of public higher education

    Since 2017, the number of public universities has grown by 53 per cent

  • March 18, 2024

    New data, old insights

    Learning achievement in Urdu, Sindhi, and Math at 5th grade level in most provinces and districts has gone down in the 2023 survey

  • March 01, 2024

    The AI frontier at WGS

    I hope and pray that AI revolution does not become latest one in which we are relegated to end users of other people’s labour

  • February 07, 2024

    Parachuted manifestos

    I reviewed manifestos of three major parties – PML-N, PPP, and PTI – that have held power at some points in past

  • January 31, 2024

    The land where time stands still

    Escalating situation by responding with physical violence and inviting violence in turn

  • January 18, 2024

    Why are Pakistanis leaving?

    I put down some of my thoughts on issue last year in an op-ed in these pages Are Pakistanis really leaving September 8, 2023

  • December 30, 2023

    The rising cost of higher education

    How, you may wonder, are changes in household spending in the US relevant to us here in Pakistan?

  • December 23, 2023

    The fierce politics of Pakistan’s academia

    Sayre’s law, named for Columbia University political scientist Wallace Stanley Sayre, states that “The politics of the university are so intense...

  • December 01, 2023

    What ails public-sector education?

    I asked 12 year-old Sultan to read from his Urdu textbook. He struggled to read a simple sentence . While he eventually read the sentence, he could...

  • November 11, 2023

    So you want to start working?

    The image shows a workplace in the US. — AFP FileA few months ago, these pages carried an op-ed of mine that attempted to provide some insights...

  • October 29, 2023

    We don’t need thought control

    A picture taken from Israel's southern city of Sderot shows rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel on October 28, 2023. — AFPSince Israel began...

  • October 19, 2023

    Can you build your own major?

    A person can be seen making hand gestures while speaking in a professional setting. — Unsplash/FileWhen you become aware of a problem, you can...

  • October 02, 2023

    Education and other non-priorities

    Around the world, universities have multiple goals. Core among them remains teaching in degree programmes to pass on knowledge, make young adults...

  • September 20, 2023

    Welcome to college – and adulthood

    Fall, the time when millions of students all over the world – including Pakistan – will start their college journeys, is upon us. Many will be...

  • September 08, 2023

    Are Pakistanis really leaving?

    A few weeks ago, the caretaker prime minister’s soundbite about educated Pakistanis who choose to settle abroad attracted public ire.Coming so...

  • August 28, 2023

    CIE conundrum: the sequel

    A few weeks ago, A-level students in Pakistan and the region received their grades for the May/June 2023 exam session. The results came as a shock...

  • August 21, 2023

    Leading without a plan

    Public universities are facing multiple challenges that we keep hearing about, ranging in nature from academic, administrative, managerial,...

  • August 10, 2023

    How the [HEI] sausage is made

    At the beginning of this year, I contributed an op-ed about how in its waning days, members of the Punjab Assembly went on a university charter...

  • August 01, 2023

    Unchecked power in a university

    What happens when you put a man in charge of a university, grant him virtually unchecked power over staff and faculty who in turn have unchecked...

  • July 24, 2023

    Internationalizing a university

    I recently had the opportunity to visit Incheon in South Korea’s greater Seoul area. I spent time at the Incheon Global Campus, a global education...

  • July 13, 2023

    Pakistan’s skills report card

    The vast majority of 240-odd universities in the country are failing both of their missions: the idealistic goal of learning for learning’s sake,...

  • July 05, 2023

    What should VCs be worried about?

    Today’s university vice-chancellors are facing a number of challenges. The number one challenge by far that universities are grappling with,...

  • June 21, 2023

    All hail the SNC

    I was on a road trip to the northern areas with friends. We were at a rest stop, our black off-road utility vehicle parked on the side of the road,...

  • June 12, 2023

    Dreams of disruption

    Some people like superhero movies while others prefer horror movies. My favourite category of movies are tales of founders of companies that built...

  • May 27, 2023

    The admissions game

    International applicants to post-graduate programmes at universities in developed countries have long understood that having even a single...

  • May 20, 2023

    At the bottom of the totem pole

    The visuals coming out of Pakistan over the last week were jarring and alarming. Uncertainty is reigning. In the face of the tyranny of the urgent,...

  • May 01, 2023

    The AI debate in education

    Large Language Models , the guts of chatbots like ChatGPT, are having their moment right now. The rise of chatbots has brought forth numerous...

  • April 13, 2023

    The workplace of today

    Every Pakistani aspires to the fruits of progress although many insist on continuing to live in the 16th century. Our state is too preoccupied with...

  • March 29, 2023

    The case for student unions

    The Google /Oxford Languages dictionary definition of the adjective ‘liberal’ is: “willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different...

  • March 08, 2023

    The importance of playtime

    One of the most famous legends in Greek mythology is that of the escape of Daedalus, a gifted architect and craftsman, and his son Icarus from the...

  • February 20, 2023

    Failure of imagination

    On the evening of January 27, 1967 the Apollo 1 crew was performing a test rehearsal on the pad at Launch Complex 34 when a spark from a power surge...