Tough but not Rough

"A Story of Higher Education" by M.Abdul Basit Saim

It is the restless nature of human being that inspires him to learn more and more about the hidden truths of nature. Either revealed or not, either told by our predecessors or not, to unfold the mysteries around us  is the inheritance we have from the first day we are in world as earthians.  That is how we learn and  that is why we learn.

There is something to be said about the fact that I learned to read at a very young age. Perhaps it is not entirely true that it changed the course of my life, but I can say for certain that it opened up a world vastly different from my own earlier, I think, than my parents intended.  I always urged to move forward to learn and to earn the money of knowledge considering it a religious esteem as well as socio-moral obligation. But that does not make the story complete as I always possessed a thought of being incomplete in modern day knowledge,  either scientific or socio-religious, without having higher education abroad. To me, knowledge is distributed all around you equally. No matter you learn from silence of trees around you or voices of pen and book placed on the table. My belief of learning did not allow me to look for a white collar job that an engineer usually dreams for , rather I made a tough decisions for myself, but not rough definitely.  

Teaching profession is generally considered to be the last-option choice for engineers when compared to the multi-national offers having highly paid  packages and prosperous service structure with many a fringe benefits. After graduation , in my view, graduates are divided in two categories i.e. one with earning priority and the other with learning priority. Being from the second class of graduates, though first class in merit, learners step forward for higher education keeping social status , family planning and many other features of personal lives aside and opt a longer and higher route  towards success and objectivity of life.  Tough but not that rough ride is more often accompanied with overseas exposure as a scholarly learner or as a science and technology researcher.  In Pakistan,  because of not having that standard and innovative study work at graduation level which is further by dint of substandard  educational system and lack of research facilities, it is more likely to happen that there comes a time gap to pursue higher education after graduation and being accepted for higher education or doctoral studies. I am an eye witness of the fact that many an efforts are gone scraped due to poor research proposals and deficient research background. Till now, it is uncommon to find local graduates with published research work  in internationally recognized journals at graduate level, which so far is forcing Higher Education Commission to invest a huge financial budget on scholars which is estimated to be Rs. 1.4 Billion for the OSS MS Leading to PhD Program, Rs. 550 Million for PhD Fellowships and Rs. 740 Million for Faculty Development Program.

 To my understanding, this MS Leading to PhD policy of HEC is to favor candidates to overcome the barrier of being unsuccessful to secure admissions directly in foreign institutes  due to relatively poor research profile and to enhance the rate of doctoral studies among researchers returning with  professional aims of technological advancement and educational change. Research output out of Pakistan increased by over 50% within two years, which was the second highest increase worldwide. According to Scimago world scientific database, if Pakistan continues at the same pace, its ranking will increase from 43 to 27 globally by 2017.

Studying abroad is truly a tough experience, though not as hard as working or doing labor abroad. In fact overseas experiences always depends on country , field of study, type of scholarship, personality and profile of supervisor and Laboratory environment in specific. But for the sake of generalization , one may categorize it  in two types i.e. English speaking countries and Non-English Speaking countries. Some may assume that if not  in common daily life abroad , at least  Higher education programs would be in English including courses offered, documentation and class communication. But that is not as true as generalized while making plans in Pakistan. Many a countries like Japan, Germany, China, South Korea and others have a contradictory status to the assumed one. Even in some cases , initially scholars have to learn the particular language and then settle in specific professional course. Language barrier to me is the difficult most obstacle that one has to cross along with his or her successful professional studies. Cultural and religious differences also  exist but one with thinking head and living heart  can easily manage with both. "Why donot you drink Vine?" and to "Why do you eat Halal meat only?" are the common most questions put forward to muslim scholars on dining tables while having a party together. It turns very funny sometimes when someone considers muslims to be  vegetarian and sometimes when some-one asks "Do You eat Halal Pork?" In countries where muslims are not in reasonable number , most often it becomes really challenging to manage food and one is forced to do cooking and eating non-fresh food.

Starting from Alien Registration , billing , part time job seeking , hospitalization , shopping and other matters which one would may consider negligible appear as mountain range to cross due to language and culture barriers. Though tough, but all these incidents provide an opportunity to be a part of an adventurous movie rather than watching on a 40 inch Flat LG Screen at home. Inter-religion harmony , cultural diversity , techno-scientific advancement,  psycho and theological disparity among people, artistic intellects , geographical sceneries , legendary wisdoms , humanity focused souls , political milieu and much much more is in front of your eyes and beside your heart to feel , to understand and to capture in the form of conventional memory bites of wisdom. More you learn professionally , more you grow spiritually and socio-psychologically.

Precisely,  opportunity to complete  doctoral studies abroad  is not a chance to be a Higher Degree holder, rather a soulful journey of witnessing the wisdom spread on the face of earth and beyond that. Being away from home is the only way to feel the whole world as our home, all humanity as our relatives, and all knowledge as our own affluence for better and prosperous future.