PhDs, as we know, are groomed to become senior academics, but Khyber Pakhutunkhwa (KP) education minister's revelation turned out to be somewhat shocking when recently he disclosed that his department had received more than 700,000 applications for 17,000 vacant teaching posts in primary and secondary schools and, unfortunately, some of them were
PhDs.
He said that HEC has shifted its focused towards producing quality
PhDs instead of increasing number of degrees as there is need to improve the quality of education in the country.
School of Engineering only managed to produce four
PhDs, College of Agriculture, for which the university is named, only produced six
PhDs, and College of Pure and Applied Sciences produced seven
PhDs while College of Health Sciences produced 10
PhDs.
A demand and agenda paper had also been issued by the unemployed
PhDs earlier, which stated that there were 36, 000
PhDs required in universities, with a further 60, 000
PhDs required across Pakistan.
A demand and agenda paper had also been issued by the unemployed
PhDs earlier, which stated that there were 36,000
PhDs required in universities, with a further 60,000
PhDs required across Pakistan.However, despite this shortage, the previous governments had only succeeded in providing jobs to only a few hundred (about 700)
PhD graduates.
ISLAMABAD -- Unemployed members of
PhD Doctors Association staged a protest in front of the residence of the prime minister at Bani Gala.
'HEC recognises difficulties being faced by the unemployed
PhDs.' To alleviate the hardships, HEC has held several deliberations with representatives of unemployed
PhDs and other stakeholders to evaluate the problem and institute steps that will help in creating additional employment opportunities for
PhD graduates,' says an HEC statement.
According to the statement, the eligibility criteria under Interim Placement of Fresh
PhDs (IPFP) programme will be reviewed to strengthen placement of
PhD graduates in all HEC recognized universities.
The research by
PhD candidates is being done in various emerging technologies areas in the domain of Electronics & IT/ITES such as Internet of Things, Cyber Security, VLSI Design, Wireless Communications, Cloud computing, Photovoltaic, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data etc.
While the number of new
PhDs is down compared to the early 1990s, the authors found that over 80% of the respondents reported that their
PhD enrollment over the last five years was either holding steady or increasing.
Most
PhD students would advise not going into debt for a degree that does not lead to a lucrative career and to attend a good university, which will make you competitive after the degree, but beyond that basic financial calculation, most pursue
PhDs for non-monetary reasons.
Because of special focus of the current administration on promotion of research culture, Punjab University has produced
PhDs in the subjects where research work was ignored in the past.
