Understanding External Policy Influences in Pakistani Higher Education

• In Event: Poster Group 5
  In Poster Session: Understanding External Policy Influences in Pakistani Higher Education

Proposal

Context

Pakistan must address the quality, access and governance issues facing its higher education (HE) sector. With barely 1 in 10 Pakistanis being able to access tertiary-level studies, external agencies have stepped in to assist the Pakistani HE sector meets its development needs. Despite several decades of involvement, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent by international donors and aid agencies, little has been achieved.

This study examines the nature and extent of participation by international actors in Pakistan’s HE sector. The study explores the underlying dynamics between the external and the internal in the context of the sector, and seeks to identify points of convergence and divergence in terms of a preferred future. The central research question motivating the study was: How have external actors influenced Pakistan’s HE system, and in particular, its governance?

Data Collection/Methodology

To answer this question, 43 qualitative research interviews were conducted over 5 months in 3 large urban centres in Pakistan (Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad) with senior governors active in the Pakistani HE sector including representatives of Pakistani government agencies, international organizations and HE institutional leaders. The methodology used was particularly appropriate because of the study’s goals of greater voice and mutuality for indigenous participants. The data revealed the extent of external influences in the system by type (e.g., foreign aid, policy borrowing), and by actor (e.g., the World Bank, USAID, British Council).

Findings

The findings suggest that Pakistan’s HE sector is affected by external policy influences in a multitude of ways, and that endogenous and exogenous actors do not always see eye-to-eye, resulting in a mismatch of policy prescriptions at times. Above all, the findings suggest that the lack of an indigenous policy community has resulted in a sector that is outward-facing and looking for solutions from without, rather than from within, thereby resulting in an externally-oriented path dependency. Such external policy pressures will likely continue to exercise an out-sized influence on the Pakistani higher education sector unless tools for effective self-governance and self-regulation are developed.

Summary

This study is particularly well suited for presentation in the form of a poster session at CIES 2024 since the doctoral dissertation it is based on has recently been defended and the findings are now ready for dissemination to a wide audience. Furthermore, one of the main goals of the dissertation was to inform praxis through knowledge mobilization; a goal that is particularly well aligned with a poster presentation format. My doctoral dissertation also employed the use of case studies which would lend themselves well to presentation in poster format.

Finally, this study is in harmony with the CIES 2024 theme of the ‘Power of Protest’ as it proposes multiple ways of understanding and knowing that, ultimately, de-centre powerful international organizations and donor agencies and advocate, instead, “making-with” the Pakistani HE community. In other words, achieving better alignment in the relationship through greater mutuality between centres and peripheries.

Author

• Aamir Taiyeb, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education OISE, University of Toronto