Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Why fragmentation instead of merger

Everywhere in the world a merger of institutions is taking place. A lot of institutions in the United States have already merged in twos or threes. A wave of merger of universities and other institutions has spread across Europe with the aim  of centralizing, strengthening the standards and minimizing the burden on the economy. An example would be Denmark, where 25 universities were reduced to 8 universities and 3 research institutions. Here in a small country like New Zealand where a total of 8 universities of international standard exist. Even then they are planning to merge Lincoln university with Agresearch, a crown research institute with reputation for cutting edge research. But it is beyond understanding that the Pakistani Govt is fragmenting everything day by day which yield nothing but a disaster for the nation and country. It  further opens the doors for mismanagement and corruption. HEC was the only national symbol in education and a sign of federation setting standards. “Please leave it alone”. I hope the Govt will reverse their decision in the larger interest of the future of Pakistan and its academia.

 

Farman Ali

 

Otago University

New Zealand

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