The earliest formal establishment of higher learning was perhaps the Academy, founded in roughly 387 BC by Plato in Athens, Greece. Although famous for producing some of the best philosophical works of the time under the guardianship of its great founder, the Academy also nurtured well rounded scholars, who were not only accomplished astronomers and mathematicians but also experts in philosophical thinking. By some accounts, the sign at the entrance of the Academy read: “Let none ignorant of geometry enter here.” Clearly, Plato was convinced that knowledge of geometry was essential in developing critical thinking skills required to analyse complex metaphysical concepts such as ethics, truth and justice. This interdisciplinary approach to learning, where subjects such as geometry and philosophy feed off each other, not in their subject matter but in the development of students’ thought processes, is as valid in today’s Pakistan as it was in Athens during Plato’s time.

The difference between the two situations is that our model of higher education, inherited from the British, makes students focus on only one discipline in depth, such as law, history, engineering and so on. In the United States, however, the liberal arts model of education follows the Platonic philosophy of interdisciplinary learning, which makes it incumbent upon students studying the natural sciences to also study social sciences and the humanities, and vice versa. Whether this is because of our ‘colonial hangover’ or due to the economic and developmental needs of an emerging state, authorities in Pakistan’s higher education system have, since the beginning, fixated on promoting scientific disciplines more than any other area of study. Colleges and universities do not treat social sciences and the humanities in the same manner as scientific, financial and technological subjects. Facilities and funding for social sciences and the humanities at public sector universities lag far behind those available for the study of science and finance subjects.

The political and sociocultural morass facing Pakistan may, however, suggest that we would be better off moving closer to the American model of higher education. After all, what the country needs most is minds trained to contemplate concepts like ethics, truth and justice as a basis for understanding such afflictions as moral and financial corruption, extremism, religious and ethnic discrimination and division and terrorism which are eating into the body politic.

At the 13th Annual All Pakistan Science Conference held in Dhaka on January 11, 1961, Dr Abdus Salam, a Pakistani theoretical physicist who was one of the recipients of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, said: “Let us be absolutely clear about the nature of the revolution we are trying to usher in. It is a technological and scientific revolution and thus, it is imperative that top-most priority is given to the massive development of the nation’s scientific and technological skills.” He wished for Lahore to evolve into a hub of technological enlightenment, where people discussed the five-year economic development plan instead of “love lyrics in the Mall cafes”.

It was a time when East Asian economies were focussing on technological innovation and financial expertise: South Korea and Taiwan, subsequently, boomed as hubs of electronics and information technology with companies like Samsung and Acer becoming household names worldwide; today, Singapore and Hong Kong provide financial services not just for East Asia but for the whole world.

The Asian Tigers – as the four countries are fondly termed by economists – are seen as prototypes for speedy economic growth. Scientists such as Salam wanted Pakistan to take the same route, propelled by an intense focus on studying science and technology. The economic development plan that Salam talked about in his conference address was Pakistan’s Second Five-Year Plan (1960–1965). Aimed at increasing national income by 20 per cent, the plan also recognised the significance of higher education for realising the country’s growth potential. In line with some of the recommendations made by the 1959 Education Report, the plan envisaged huge investment in the higher education sector. In the five years covered by the plan, the government spent 912 million rupees to improve infrastructure and facilities at educational institutions, increase enrolment, provide merit-based scholarships and establish three new engineering colleges whilst upgrading the ones in Lahore and Dhaka to the status of universities that offered postgraduate studies in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. At a lower educational level, this was to fuel a rush towards studying science subjects in order to be able to obtain admission at these newly set up and upgraded engineering colleges and universities.

Even though the educational policy under the Second Five-Year Plan laid a lot of emphasis on – and made a lot of investment in – promoting engineering studies, it still did not discourage education in social sciences and the humanities. Although funds for instruction in these latter subjects did not increase as much as they did for science subjects, the money also did not shrink as it would a few years later.

It was under the Education Policy of 1972–1980, first incorporated in the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1970–1975), that the pendulum swung decisively in favour of the sciences. The policy was unequivocal in according prominence to the promotion of science and technology, and discouraging the study of arts. Its authors urged expansion of enrolment in sciences at an annual rate of 10 per cent, while at the same time suggested curtailing enrolment in arts by five per cent each year.

The same policy focus has continued since then. Although comparative enrolment statistics are not available at the undergraduate level, one indicator to gauge the impact of this paradigm shift in education is the steadily rising number of PhDs in science subjects. By 2002, when the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was established to undertake the task of improving institutes of higher learning, there were 1,664 PhD holders in science subjects and 1,567 PhD holders in social sciences and the humanities, including business education. By 2012, the number of PhD holders in scienctific disciplines rose to 4,772 — showing almost a threefold increase in 10 years. On the other hand, in the same year, the number of PhD holders in social sciences, humanities and business education was 3,304 — slightly more than double of what it was a decade ago.

Scholars in social sciences and the humanities also produce considerably less research work. In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available on research output across disciplines, Pakistani scholars produced 3,608 research papers in the natural sciences, including agriculture, 1,248 in life sciences and 233 in engineering and information technology. The number of research papers produced in social sciences, including management sciences, was a dismal 145 and only nine research papers were produced in the arts and humanities. While Pakistan’s progress from just 893 research papers in 1996 to about 6,000 research papers in 2010 looks impressive in absolute numbers, it fails to hide the injury inflicted upon research in social sciences and the humanities.

The role of funds allocated and facilities provided is an unmistakable factor in why there has been so much more research in science subjects than in other disciplines. In 2011–12, only four per cent of research projects approved for funding by the HEC were social science projects. An overwhelming 96 per cent of them were science projects, of which biological science projects counted for a massive 33 per cent. In terms of educational events and workshops organised by the HEC, science subjects got twice as much attention as social sciences or the humanities. The number of events and workshops held on science subjects was 91 in 2011–12, while those organised on social sciences and the humanities were 46.

The HEC, however, continues to insist that it is also paying attention to social sciences. The commission’s officials claim to have dedicated 30 per cent of research funds for social science research in recent years (though a large part of these funds remains unused). The officials aver that the fewer number of research projects in social sciences and the humanities is not a result of unavailable funds but of a lack of interest among researchers. They do not apply for funding and when they do their research proposals do not meet the HEC’s criteria.

There may be some truth to this argument, though not as a comment on the apathy of social science students towards research but as a judgement on the quality of education that public sector institutions of higher learning impart in these disciplines. The system never trains students in critical thinking and research methodology, which can enable them to come up with sound ideas for research, backed with solid proposals for funding. Professors who oversee research projects are underqualified and PhD students often lack information about the research projects they want to conduct.

Dr Rubina Saigol, a Lahore-based independent researcher on social developments, says that students do not even know the theoretical framework in which to situate their arguments. They are also unaware of research methodologies beyond survey-type questionnaires, which do not provide the qualitative depth needed to study social sciences and humanities, she says. The lack of innovation in research techniques and the absence of ability to carry out original qualitative analysis lead to repetition of research topics.

Plagiarism among researchers is rampant and there are no effective checks and balances in place to put an end to it. Last year, Karachi University (KU) dropped charges of plagiarism against three of its senior teachers without any investigation. This year, the draft of the university’s policy on plagiarism itself contained copied text — a document prepared by 14 professors and approved by the KU academic council. How are students, then, expected to do better than their teachers?

There are a number of reasons why public sector institutions fail to deliver quality education in social sciences and the humanities. Firstly, not enough facilities are provided on campus for research in these disciplines. Dr Rao Nadeem Alam, a teacher at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, says it is not just sciences that require laboratories for research. Subjects such as sociology also require lab facilities for quantitative analysis. Such facilities either do not exist at all or are inadequate when they do.

Research in social sciences is also the victim of another misperception — that research in non-science disciplines must not cost much. Consequently, fewer financial resources for research are provided to departments of social sciences and the humanities at public sector universities. Fewer resources, inevitably, lead to fewer facilities. Libraries at departments of social sciences and humanities usually do not have the latest books and journals required for research.

To overcome some of these problems, the HEC has made an effort since 2004 to provide digital access to local and international journals, articles and e-books on a variety of topics to students across Pakistan. The scope of this initiative, however, remains limited since many, if not most, students – particularly in remote, smaller towns – don’t have personal computers or laptops, and reliable, stable, internet access to benefit from this facility. By refusing to integrate modern technological products such as multimedia presentations and videos of lectures and seminars, classrooms are also not equipping students with proficiency in using technological tools to enhance their learning levels. Senior professors are either illiterate in, or hesitant to use, new technologies, while many of the younger ones employ them to make up for their own intellectual depth.

Low quality of education is also a function of the official focus on increasing quantity and improving enrolment numbers. As a result, the number of departments, teachers and students has increased in all colleges and universities across Pakistan but has been accompanied by a decline in the quality of education.

Ideological biases, too, mar the standard of education. Consequently, when students write research papers on subjects such as history, these are replete with misplaced and unverified references to religion, jingoism and other historical myths, says Saigol. Institutions of higher education suffer from another problem — acute lack of governance. This is, indeed, a twofold problem. On the one hand, universities have cases of internal mismanagement — an example of this is the rehiring of retired employees at the University of Karachi on a contractual basis in June this year, despite the fact that the university is suffering heavy financial losses and has adopted a number of other cost-cutting measures. The other side to the problem is the magnitude of responsibilities that some educational institutions are supposed to fulfil without corresponding managerial and administrative capacity.

The KU and Punjab University in Lahore, for instance, have affiliated colleges which are difficult to monitor since they are located in areas far away from the main campuses. (Punjab University alone has affiliations with 487 colleges, which are spread all over central Punjab.) The two universities do not have the financial and human resources to monitor educational activities at these colleges, let alone ensure quality education there. “Even if you visit faculties of sciences at these colleges, their chemistry and biology labs are in an abysmal condition,” says Nazish Attaullah, a former principal of the National College of Arts, Lahore. This is despite the fact that science subjects get almost all the official attention in higher education.

In recent years, the HEC has tried to improve the quality of teaching at public sector institutions by sending PhD students abroad on scholarships with the aim that they will come back and get teaching positions at universities. By June 2012, the number of students having completed their PhDs abroad was 1,252. The break-up of this number, though, shows the same bias for science subjects as is visible in the rest of the education sector — 142 people completed their doctoral degrees in agriculture and veterinary sciences, 164 in biological and medical sciences, 397 in physical sciences, 394 in engineering and technology and 43 in business education. On the other hand, 112 people completed their PhDs in social sciences and none in the humanities.

The gap between policy and implementation is a major hurdle as far as improving the skills of prospective members of faculties in social sciences and the humanities is concerned. Not all students who go abroad on HEC scholarships come back to Pakistan to join public sector teaching institutions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of them take up positions at private universities, which offer much higher salaries than do public sector universities or they work on projects funded by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Furthermore, in the last two years, scholarship funds have started shrinking. In 2012, the HEC had to suspend disbursing scholarship funds more than once because it had not received the required money from the government. In April 2013, at a ceremony for students going to Germany for higher education, the HEC’s project director Wasim Hashim Syed said the commission was “facing problems in receiving funds” for the next batch of scholars.

Other programmes that the HEC initiated, in 2003, to improve the quality of faculty teaching at public sector universities are the Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme, the Short Term Foreign Faculty Hiring Programme and the Visiting Scholars Programme. All three are meant to bring in qualified professors from abroad who can teach at local universities and inculcate a culture of research among students. These, too, run the risk of losing momentum if the HEC continues to face the financial squeeze as it is now.

Moreover, some sections of social science education are suffering because teachers and students are becoming increasingly unable to examine historical texts and other sources due to a lack of linguistic skills. For instance, KU used to offer certificate programmes for learning Hindi and Sanskrit but these are no longer available, says Sahar Ansari, a professor of Urdu at the university. This poses a major hurdle for the university’s aspiring and established political scientists, historians, anthropologists and philosophers who, without knowledge of Hindi and Sanskrit, will not even be able to know if information relevant to their subjects existed in those languages. The troubling aspect of the closure of these departments is that they have not been shut down due to a shortage of resources. As both Ansari and the Executive Director of HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed point out, departments close down because of lack of interest among students to learn these languages.

In the absence of an education that yields serious researchers, well trained in research methodologies, asks Zaeem Yaqoob Khan, the director for student affairs and external relations at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore, “How can you randomly start supporting research?” Without a “healthy ecosystem where social sciences and the humanities can actually take birth”, the HEC will continue receiving low quality research proposals that it doesn’t like, he says. Others say that the HEC’s refusal to approve grants for research in social sciences and the humanities is not always due to the poor quality of research proposals. Even sound proposals sometimes don’t get the financial go-ahead.

Dr Grace Clark, the dean of social sciences at the Forman Christian College (FCC), Lahore, who holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Maryland, USA, applied for an HEC grant, a few years, ago to examine the living conditions of the elderly in Pakistan. Because most people in Pakistan retire from their jobs in their sixties and there are not many facilities, such as old homes and health insurance, to cater to their needs, Clark wanted to investigate how this age group fares in terms of personal well-being, social integration and economic security. When she first approached the HEC, she was excited to hear from the commission that some reworking of her project proposal would qualify it for a research grant. She immediately sent a revised version, prepared in line with the HEC’s suggestions. However, she hasn’t heard back from the HEC to this day.

Clark assumes her proposal was rejected because she teaches at a small college, whereas the HEC generally prefers to give grants to larger universities where postdoctoral research can involve a large body of PhD-level students. But even at small colleges the world over, she says, professors can engage undergraduate students to assist with research work. The most important requirement should be that the researcher must have good command of research methodology and a solid outline to carry through the study. The HEC is apparently enamoured with research proposals that have “applied objectives”. Proposals are viewed in the framework of Pakistan’s socio-economic growth and development, with importance given to those studies which seem relevant in this context. “If I apply to get funding to write about folk wisdom regarding healing processes or on people’s general eating habits, it would be almost impossible to get it approved,” says Dr Saadia Abid, an assistant professor of anthropology at the QAU.

The quad shared by the anthropology, history and linguistics departments at the QAU looks like an abandoned property. A wire mesh is sprawled on the floor with pointy edges facing an unoccupied bench. A sign board with the words “Department of History” inscribed on it is buried among broken chairs lying under an unkempt tree. Given the nearly invisible sign board, locating the teachers’ offices at the four departments becomes a real challenge.

A little meandering around the building, asking students for directions, eventually leads to Abid’s room, her name inscribed in small print outside a wooden door on the second floor. After receiving an undergraduate degree in English literature and economics, Abid – who has been teaching at the QAU since 2010 – stumbled upon anthropology while applying for her Master’s degree at the QAU. “My first priority was economics. I didn’t know anything about anthropology then,” she says. “I talked to my friend’s sister who was studying anthropology, and marked it as my second preference.” It is such uninformed accidental choices that constitute the higher education experience in social sciences for most students in these disciplines.

Studying anthropology falls into a unique category for another reason as well. Many people in Pakistan are unaware that there are fields of studies such as anthropology, archaeology and gender studies that are, indeed, being taught at some Pakistani universities. There is, therefore, little appreciation of their importance in society. Abid knows this from personal experience. She did not understand the significance of anthropology in fostering tolerance and harmony among people of different racial and ethnic communities — until she started studying it. “This subject should be taught at a very basic educational level,” she says. “It forces students to look beyond their cultural boundaries and question themselves.”

Even if people are familiar with subjects falling under social sciences and the humanities, they are generally considered the refuge of dull students who could not get admission in sciences or other sought-after subjects such as commerce. Their educational careers, indeed, start moving in the direction of social sciences and the humanities after their failure to do well in their secondary school and intermediate examinations. Students who do well in these examinations almost always end up studying sciences and other applied subjects, with the brightest of them going to medical colleges, engineering and technology universities and now, increasingly, to business education institutions — probably in the same order. This, perhaps, explains why we have a standardised testing system in the public sector only for admissions to medical colleges.

The bias against social sciences gets solidified at the intermediate level where science students have three options (pre-engineering, pre-medical and general science), while the rest have two options (commerce and humanities). Of the latter, commerce is preferred over humanities subjects because, like disciplines in the sciences group, it still offers a career-oriented educational path, leading to degrees in business administration and finance. If the humanities group is also structured in a way that it can offer students a defined trajectory towards the study of career-oriented subjects, such as law, journalism, education and public administration, it will certainly attract many bright students, who take up sciences not as a matter of choice but under pressure from their peers and parents.

Mohammad Bilal Ahmed, a student at BNU, did exactly that — he took up medicine even though he did not want to. After he decided he could no longer stand the bloody and invasive medical procedures and mind-numbing medical terminology, he quit. His next stopover was a BNU-offered programme in computer and business studies. And then, one fine day, he found the courage to show his collection of short stories to Asghar Nadeem Syed, an eminent poet and playwright who heads the BNU’s Theatre, TV & Film Studies programme. Syed was so amazed byAhmed’s writing talent that he urged him to study either literature or cultural studies and stop pursuing computer science and business studies. Encouraged and exhilarated, Ahmed made the switch not long afterwards.

He feels the cultural studies programme he is now pursuing has changed the way he thinks. Courses in literature, philosophy and history have pushed him towards reflecting on “what people don’t discuss” — questions about life, religion, politics and society. What Ahmed has defeated is more than the conventional preference for science. He has also overcome the idea that studying social sciences and humanities is suited only for women.

In its Medium Term Development Framework II, 2010–2015, the HEC proposed “introducing soft disciplines, such as Social Sciences, Media and Journalism and Fine Arts to cater more to the female population”. If anything, the proposal perpetuates the perception that women prefer studying social sciences and the humanities more than men do, and the number of students at some universities also point to the same direction. The current batch of MPhil students at the QAU’s anthropology department comprises eight women and five men. Similarly at the BNU’s School of Liberal Arts, in one particular semester there were only two male students in the cultural studies programme as compared to seven female students.

But then again, it is also true that more women enroll in medical colleges than do men. According to an April 2013 Associated Press report, 80 to 85 per cent of Pakistan’s medical students are women. This leads to an obvious conclusion: The notion of a gender-based bias against or for social sciences is nonsense. Women, indeed, face the same pressures that men do while deciding which subjects to take up for studies. Parents of most girls entering the undergraduate level want their daughters to become doctors. Social science subjects and humanities subjects are taken up only after the option of entering a medical college is no longer available.

When Juhi Naveed, who lives in Islamabad, took up anthropology at the QAU for her Master’s degree, many of her relatives saw it as a waste of time and effort. She, however, couldn’t care less for their opinions and remained adamant in her choice of subject. In an interview, she tells the Herald that she is happy with her choice as she feels her critical thinking and writing skills are far better than her cousins, who passed their MBBS exams by rote learning.

But the women studying social sciences and the humanities face an additional challenge that men studying the same subjects don’t: They find it almost impossible to conduct fieldwork for their research. Naveed, now an MPhil student at the QAU, wanted to study truck art as a research project but did not get permission from her family to travel around the country. So, she had to take up another topic and decided to focus her project on al-Huda, a centre for religious learning. “This is different from what I wanted to do,” she says of her research project.

Research challenges for women like Naveed are immense. The security situation makes it difficult for them to travel to far-flung locations or have long-term engagement with community groups their research is based on. They also feel constrained while researching taboo subjects, such as sexuality and marriage and seldom, if at all, get access to male members of the communities they are working with. Admittedly, not all of these issues are women-specific. Restrictions on travel and interaction with members of the opposite sex, however, are more stringent for them than they are for men. That, albeit partially, explains why most women studying social sciences and the humanities in Pakistan almost always fail to come up with out-of-the-box ideas for their research projects.

Traditionally, education was seen as a way of inculcating values. A well educated person would also be a well behaved person and vice versa. Today, however, education is largely a means to a more material end: In a global, capitalist economy, it is seen in a cost/benefit framework, where investment in a degree must yield high monetary returns. Securing a place in the global job market now requires specialised, niche skills with the potential to earn handsome money. More than appearing well educated, people now want to also appear well off.

This commodification of knowledge did not always exist. As Farid Panjwani, a senior lecturer at the University of London, underlined in his keynote address at a recent conference in Karachi, teachers in the olden times often did not charge money for imparting education in our part of the world. Instead, students would offer them presents, as hadiya, for their services. People well versed in literature and philosophy were highly respected for their knowlege. All the big names in our recent political and social history – Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Abul Kalam Azad, Allama Muhammad Iqbal – were poets, writers and thinkers. The “love lyrics in the Mall cafe” culture, that Nobel laureate Salam mentioned so disdainfully, is, indeed, a prized part of our cultural heritage.

But times have changed. Pursuing disciplines which do not land you the most lucrative jobs are seen as a waste of time and money. Sciences, applied disciplines, career-oriented degrees are all the rage — across the world. Forbes, an American fortnightly magazine, recently reported that the 15 most valued disciplines in American colleges last year were the ones whose graduates were hired the quickest. All of these disciplines were sciences and commerce. On the other hand, the 10 least valued disciplines all belonged to the arts and humanities.

This concept at some leading international employers, however, is beginning to change, though ever so slightly. This year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, banks such as JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Citigroup intend to hire more liberal arts graduates with the belief that they possess important skills that are generally ignored in an “unconscious bias” against these disciplines. These banks now hope to change that by basing their hiring criteria on individual “behaviors and attitudes rather than just an expertise in finance”.

In Pakistan, hiring usually takes place on the basis of technical competence. A business education graduate will end up working in a bank and a pharmacy graduate will end up working in a drug manufacturing company. There is little hope that most graduates might find a job outside the traditional specialised field to which their degrees pertain.

This may be changing, albeit imperceptibly. “Generally, management trainee programmes are open-ended,” says Khan, the BNU’s director for student affairs and external relations. “As long as you can pass the entrance test, you are as employable as someone with an engineering or business background.” Analysis done by Rozee.pk, a local job-search website, shows that the growing industry of new media technology, such as companies that produce video games, do not just hire technically skilled employees but are increasingly looking for people who are good writers, designers and analysts, Khan tells the Herald. An interdisciplinary degree, therefore, is deemed most suitable for such jobs. The assumption that education in sciences or commerce offers more employment opportunities is also ill-founded. Clark, the dean at the Forman Christian College, says some science disciplines, such as biotechnology and computer science, are no longer as suitable for finding employment as they were in the past. Her college has reduced enrollment in both departments by half since their graduates were facing difficulties in finding jobs.

But, as is the case with most important personal decisions made in Pakistani society, more often than not, it is the parents who decide what their children should read, as well as why and where. Zaheer Ali, a student of anthropology at the QAU, was initially a student of electrical engineering at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Rawalpindi, because that was what his parents wanted him to do. After a year of designing electric circuits over and over again, he decided to drop out of engineering school and do what he really wanted to do: He got admission into the QAU for anthropology, but not without having to pay a heavy emotional price. “My father didn’t speak to me for a whole year,” recalls Ali.

He says he understood his father’s concerns but argues that his was not a rash decision, rather one that stemmed out of love of studying anthropology. “The thing is that anthropology is a growing discipline. There are jobs in it too,” he tells the Herald. The prospect of a cushy job at an NGO could have clinched the argument for him when trying to remove his father’s apprehension about his choice of subject.

Ali’s case highlights parental pressure most students face while pursuing their studies. Sophiya Mirza, the programme coordinator at the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), vouches for that. She tells the Herald how students wishing to change their major from economics to history or political science desist from doing so because of their parents. She cites apprehensions about job security and earning prospects after graduation as being the biggest reasons for parents’ unwillingness to let their wards change subjects.

To assist students – and their parents – in making informed choices, Mirza, along with some other LUMS staffers, conducted a survey, asking employers what they looked for in a job applicant. The results of the survey showed that employers were less concerned with the subject an applicant had studied and more with his or her personality, communication skills, capability to work in a team setting and ability to learn on the job. Mirza says the survey results have helped her convince concerned parents when they come to talk to her about their children’s desire to switch subjects.

On the supply side, too, the purveyors of education, even in the well-funded private sector have to face market pressures. Mirza narrates how it was a herculean battle for her department to convince the LUMS administration to start offering degrees in social sciences and the humanities. It took four years before the management said yes, she says. They were concerned as to whether anyone would be willing to pay huge amounts of money for a degree in these disciplines, she adds. The department, however, has not only sustained itself since its launch in 2008, it has also grown. Last year, it offered history as a major and this year, English literature.

Others have taken the hint. The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, has stepped up the battle against its Lahore-based rival, launching its Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, this year. Habib University, a higher education institution dedicated to the study of liberal arts, is also opening in Karachi next year.

Farid Mazhar looks particularly perplexed after a class with Maryam Mirza, an assistant professor at the BNU, on feminist theory. He feels singled out as one of the three men discussing gender issues with their 10 female class fellows. One flaw that he finds in the cultural studies degree he is pursuing is that the disproportionate ratio of girls to boys in the class makes studies increasingly focused on women’s issues.

Being a man, he also has to contend with an often-asked question: How is he going to earn a living? “This is my response to those who ask the question: It is my choice, my parents support me and I am not interested in economics, science or math,” he explains to the Herald. “I am learning enough with this degree that I think I’ll be able to survive,” he says.

Mazhar’s father has set the precedent for his son. An engineer by training, he is now working as a stockbroker and is a firm supporter of Mazhar’s decision to pursue cultural studies. He is convinced that it does not really matter what degree his son chooses to pursue, as long as he puts his heart and soul into it, Mazhar tells the Herald. What makes him continue pursuing cultural studies, in spite of the occasional embarrassment of being on the wrong side of a women-dominated argument, is the way the degree has broadened his thought and fed his soul with questions on life, religion, politics and society that baffle him every day with a new dimension. It is his engagement with philosophy, literature, history and politics that nurtures his growth as a person and makes him feel fulfilled, he explains. “If you study economics or sciences, teachers will just put on the board what is in the books,” Mazhar says. “What I learn here is not in books,” he says, as he gestures towards his class.

The kind of learning Mazhar is exposed to is one that Plato would have instantly endorsed. Education in the Platonic time composed of the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). The objective of both was to prepare an individual for the study of social science par excellence – philosophy and theology – meant to nurture a better human being. It is the kind of learning that Pakistan needs the most, since people here do not have informed views on political issues, economic problems and social plights.

It was frustration generated by a lack of an informed debate in society that forced Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, an engineering graduate, to give up his 25 years of work in the engineering sector and set up the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, a research institute that comes up with policy papers and holds conferences on wide-ranging subjects, including democracy and governance. Though his personal example shows that one does not need to be a trained social scientist to augment the culture of informed deliberations and democratic discussions, it is research work by those thoroughly trained and grounded in social sciences and the humanities that can serve as the rightful basis for such discourse.

Shahzad Amjad, Mazhar’s professor of philosophy at the BNU, goes a step further. Instead of just producing social scientists and those trained in humanities majors, he advocates a more interdisciplinary approach to learning. For him, such an approach to education “is fundamental to national re-growth and regeneration, without which it is virtually impossible for this country to rethink its priorities and its direction”.

It is conceivably what Plato hoped to do centuries ago — provide Greece with thinkers who could work towards better governance in Grecian city states. Besides attaining these lofty collective goals, we must remember the humanising effect of social sciences and the humanities on the individual who pursues them. In the words of Albert Einstein, “The human spirit must prevail over technology”.