STRATEGIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN BASED ON ENDOGENOUS GROWTH

Abstract: This paper investigates the possible opportunities for Higher Education in Pakistan towards gaining a competitive advantage in the international community, the link between Human capital development and GDP growth in Pakistan and finally compares the HE policies in Pakistan and the EU. We look at empirical evidence and statistical data to investigate how endogenous growth affects the GDP per capita with the case study of Pakistan. The empirical studies show that employing human capital variable in the endogenous production function does not have favorable results on the economic growth output. This leads us to believe that the measuring criterion for Human Capital has to be re-evaluated as there are several factors that affect the educational systems in different parts of the world See Barro (2001), Qaisar (2007) and De la Fuente and Doménech (2002). Hence the definition of Human Capital can vary from region to region in order to get accurate results from the endogenous production function. We performed Pearsons Correlation function on 7 years data of GDP growth, GDP per capita GDP PPP compared with various variables including higher education enrollment rates and labor force in Pakistan. The results show little or no correlation is all experiments which further validate empirical research by Qaisar Abbas. These results are confirming the theory that the Higher Education growth cannot be simply measured in terms of enrollment rates and other variables must be included in the equation. These variables can vary from country to country and a multi ethnic country like Pakistan, measuring these variables is a complex task due to heterogeneous environments. Empirical evidence states that there is a link between human capital and spatial heterogeneity in Pakistan. Unequal opportunities are defeating the advantages of existing supplies of Human Capital. Minimization of educational inequalities enables the poor to receive more benefits of economic growth and that in turn allows the increase in growth rates for the country. A public survey was conducted to investigate general public’s awareness and attitude towards acceptance of Higher Education as a key towards quality of Life and opportunities in Higher Education for a common man in Pakistan. Overall 280 respondents from across Pakistan were engaged. Public survey results show that there is a strong sense of awareness in the general public about higher education being the Key for economic revival in Pakistan. Despite being motivated for educational growth there are various elements that are unattractive for public to pursue a higher degree in Pakistan. We take of look at the survey response towards acceptance of a Pakistani degree against a foreign degree and find that education institutions of Pakistan are majorly unattractive for our prospective future Human Capital supplies. In light of these findings and research studies, we identify a few areas in which the education institutes can impact their internal and external environments to meet the challenges posed in front of them. In the second leg of this dissertation, we perform an analytical review of the background and present status of EU Higher Education policies in contrast to Pakistani Higher Education policies. This dissertation reveals a sharp contrast between the history, plans and implementation of HE Policies in the EU and Pakistan. In the EU, dynamic policy making in the light of the intergovernmental Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy is evident how HE has evolved in the EU and provided a roadmap to Lisbon/Bologna declarations [2]. In Pakistan, we can only witness some enthusiastic plans, but lack of implementation force backed with unrealistic economic forecasts which ultimately played a major role in policy failure [3][4]. A detailed analysis and comparison is performed between EU and Pakistan in order to identify benchmarks for Pakistan. We find there are a need of exchange programs at all levels in Pakistan in order to establish a knowledge based community which in turn can be expanded in collaboration wi th other communities and possibly with EU in the form of Bologna process. In the end of the dissertation we conclude that the existing theory of human capital growth has strong relevance in the field of higher education as indicated by our experiments and empirical evidence from Qaisar, Jamal and Hasan. The survey results support the fact that there economic growth is deeply severed due to insufficient supplies of Human capital, the studies and survey results support that fact that un-equal opportunities and lack of financial aid for students is defeating our cause to utilize our demographic dividend or working age group of Human Capital before we enter 2050 and become one of biggest populated nations in the world. Empirical studies tell us that at least 40% of development in East Asian countries can be attributed towards their Human Capital (Demographic dividend)[1]. Pakistan has to capitalize on her Human Capital stock in order to translate this opportunity of a demographic dividend into global economic power. We briefly look into the spatial heterogeneity aspect of human capital growth and knowledge spillovers as possible solution to minimize the silos culture within regions. This dissertation is a non-technical review of Endogenous Growth theories, its application across the countries and in Pakistan. We conclude this dissertation by suggesting some changes in the internal and external environments of higher education institutes and higher education policy re-evaluation in Pakistan. We have identified certain areas of improvement which the Government of Pakistan should consider.