Understanding External Policy Influences In Pakistani Higher Education

• In Event: Publication mentoring workshop session
  In Special Session: Governance & Policy Studies

Proposal

Dear Colleagues,

I am extremely excited to submit my application for the New Scholars Publication Mentoring Workshop (NSPMW) at the 2019 CIES Annual Conference. As a final stage doctoral student, I am eager to learn from other CIES colleagues, experienced scholars and peers, how to further refine this paper (which builds on my doctoral dissertation and fieldwork) as outlined below into a journal publication or book chapter. I would welcome the invaluable opportunity to participate in this workshop and better understand how a paper can be shaped to the point where it is ready to be published.

Introduction and Research Objectives

Most impartial observers would agreed with the statement that the higher education system in Pakistan is in a state of crisis. Observers have commented on the monumental scale of the investments needed in a state where only 8% of Pakistani’s attend university and barely 1.8% of GDP is devoted to the education budget (USAID, 2014). As is the case in many low-income countries, external actors, including international donor organizations, bilateral aid agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have stepped in to assist the HE sector in Pakistan meet its development needs. Despite millions of dollars spent by international donors, little has been achieved (Naviwala, 2015).

The role of external actors in shaping domestic policy (particularly in lower income, aid dependent countries, such as Pakistan), has been widely recognized in the literature as an important dimension to studying and understanding policy processes and outcomes. However, in the case of education aid (including technical assistance) to Pakistan, what has hitherto been missing is an understanding of how external actors have influenced the governance dimension of the Pakistani higher education system. My paper attempts to shed light on this aspect of Pakistan’s higher education system challenges. Indeed, ineffective governance and management structures and processes have been identified as a key issue in achieving the overall reform needs of the Pakistani higher education system (Task Force, 2002).

Research Question

How have external actors influenced and affected governance-related reforms within Pakistan’s higher education system?
 
Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

While many historical traditions that have defined the field of Comparative and International Education , the theoretical lens that I use is Cosmopolitanism, a theoretical approach, paradigm and lens that promises to provide the greatest explanatory value for the subject matter under discussion in the present work, namely the social ‘construction’ of governance-related norms, values and ideas by international actors in the case of Pakistan.

Methodology

My main data collection technique, in addition to surveys, was semi-structured interviews. I conducted 43 in-person interviews in Pakistan between the period of July 2017-January 2018 in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, with senior institutional governors active in the system (Vice-Chancellors, Presidents, Deans), as well as leaders from the higher education government sector and international NGO sector. The major themes of the interviews were: (1) Ideal governance arrangements, (2) External influences in Pakistani higher education, and (3) Privatization/marketization.

Data Analysis

The data I collected was transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative data analysis software: Dedoose. I developed a ‘code tree’, and applied excerpts from the 43 transcripts 817 times. These data findings were then collated and parlayed into the main findings from the data collection process with the main intention of drawing substantive conclusions regarding the nature, degree, and variety of external policy influences in Pakistani higher education.

Conclusions

The data collected was analyzed particularly with the lens of comparing and contrasting the preferred future in terms of system outcomes that the Pakistani indigenous community hoped for and the preferred future that the external international community (NGOs, etc) wished for. Some of the most interesting findings from the study were as follows:

1. The marked absence of an endogenous ‘policy community’ in the higher education sector of Pakistan leaving it vulnerable to external influence
2. Multiple roles/backgrounds of key system leaders with links to external agencies leading to perceived conflicts of interest;
3. Small-scale education projects affecting nation-wide policy (Ex: the USAID-funded 4-year teacher education program and the British Council’s Modern University Governance (MUG) program in Pakistan;
4. Exploitation by external agencies of the policy-making confusion engendered by the 18th Amendment and the devolution of higher education to the provinces of Pakistan.

I look forward to speaking with colleagues at the New Scholars Publication Mentoring Workshop to determine how best to position my paper for future publication.

Author

• Aamir Taiyeb, OISE, University of Toronto