Globalization is the process by
which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start
operating on an international scale. It is also defined as a process through
which industry has been able to derive and distribute its business inputs and
outputs wherever it could get the maximum profit (Tarar, 2006). The liberal
ideas of higher education characterized education as public-good which neither
ends with use nor it is diminished by redistribution, like other sources of
wealth like land or minerals (Tarar, 2006).
Acquiring of higher education has gained much importance in Pakistan especially
in recent years. The neoliberal reforms i.e., the privatization are affecting in
the restructuring of higher education in Pakistan. These reforms are also
affecting the role of universities and policies underlying these reforms. This
reformation process has increased the higher fees and privatization of
education, while the quality of education also needs to be taken into account (Tarar,
2006).
The universities in the western world underwent a transformation after the
extensive university changes of the late 1960s; which changed their role to
producers of knowledge workers, from producers of knowledge. As important
contributors to the knowledge economy, universities became not just trainers of
young minds and creators of knowledge i.e., agents of acculturation – but major
agents of economic growth that can help a nation to compete in the global
economy and increase human capital (Tarar, 2006).
The revolution in information and communication technologies has basically
affected higher education. Digital broadcasting i.e., the web, e-mail, and other
fast and user-friendly information and communication technologies have produced
a global market in the teaching and training of knowledge workers. Funds are
being diverted towards professional and technological fields from traditional
strengths like the humanities and social sciences (Tarar, 2006).
The globalization of higher education has opened up new challenges for the
developing countries to compete in the global knowledge economy. Since a few
countries dominate the global scientific systems, and the multinational
corporations and academic institutions own new technologies based in the western
countries, the developing countries are dependent on the academic superpowers.
Given the inequalities in the international systems of higher education and the
intense competitions between the universities worldwide, developing countries
are at the losing end. They face a major problem in retaining their share of
higher education personnel – students, teachers and professionals alike – not
only in proportional terms but even in terms of absolute numbers (Tarar, 2006).
Most of the developing countries including Pakistan are facing a frightening
situation in keeping up with international standards of higher education. Public
expenditure on higher education is considered a luxury for most of the
developing world. Higher education needs to be financed and developed through
government intervention and financing, since it adds to the economic prosperity
and well-being of society as a whole and raises skill levels. Whatever funds
were available to the education sector in Pakistan were used for quantitative
expansion and not for qualitative improvement. The planners have never been able
to estimate the country’s needs; the institutions of higher education have had
no guidance for defining goals (Tarar, 2006).
The current process of institutional reforms initiated in 2000 led to
development of much larger body of academics, technocrats and management
professionals called, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002. The critics
of HEC have pointed out that improvements in the quality of higher education can
only come about if all levels of university education are improved. The
pre-university education system, which provides the basis for university
education is outside the limits of the HEC. The ministry of education, which
controls primary, secondary and post-secondary education in the provinces, works
independently of the changes in the structure of university education. Unless
there is an active collaboration between the HEC and the ministry, no long-term
changes can occur in the higher education system in Pakistan (Tarar, 2006).