Pakistan to be among top 30 research conducting countries by 2018

PPI

An international forecast for research output has shown that Pakistan will be among top 30 countries of the world. Scimago, an independent research organization and an international evaluation and ranking platform, has projected in its recent publication how the world will perform in research by 2018 based on their past performance. The top 50 countries are included in the forecast, says a press release received from HEC on Thursday. China, as expected, becomes the number one country in the world by 2018 in terms of research output, however three countries which stand out and show the most drastic increase in numbers and rankings are Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan. Iran moves ahead from number 19 to number 4, Malaysia from 30 to 13, and Pakistan from 43 to 27. The expected output of research in Pakistan moving up 16 notches, which is the second highest increase worldwide, is primarily due to the innovative higher education policies and reforms taking place in Pakistan under the Higher Education Commission (HEC). During the last few years, in addition to quality reforms, there has been a strong resurgence of research and innovation. In particular, there is a significant growth in the number of PhDs awarded out of Pakistani universities. The numbers speak for themselves. In the first 55 years since Pakistan’s independence, a total of 3281 PhDs were awarded at Pakistani universities. However, since the establishment of the HEC in 2002, over 4000 PhDs have been awarded to-date, which is more than what was awarded in the previous 55 years. There is a renewed focus on engineering and technology, agriculture, biological sciences, business education and social sciences, which are relevant subjects important for the socio-economic development of Pakistan. There is a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism, where every research paper, thesis and dissertation must be scrutinised by anti-plagiarism software before submission. All thesis and dissertation must be evaluated by at least two foreign referees in academically advanced countries in the relevant area of research. Despite having very limited funds, HEC supports many research initiatives through different types of grants, including split PhDs, post-doctoral fellowships, foreign faculty programmes, hosting conferences and to present papers anywhere in the world, to name only a few.