Application

Gilani, Zulfiqar

• Director
  
• Centre for Higher Education Transformation
  
• Pakistan

In 1983, he joined the University of Peshawar, one of the largest and most prestigious universities in Pakistan, as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and held a number of positions there, including Dean of the Faculty of Education. Dr. Gilani has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sussex between 1992 and 1995.

Between 2000 and 2004, he served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Peshawar where he provided leadership and championed pioneering reforms at the university. During that period he was also a proactive member of the Task Force on Improvement of Higher Education and the subsequent Steering Committee on Higher Education, both of which were engaged in re-formulating higher education policy and leveraging reform in institutions of higher learning in the country. He also served as the Rector Foundation University, Islamabad, a private sector University. Among other accomplishments, Dr. Gilani was one of the architects of the Devolution of Power Plan that resulted in a paradigmatic restructuring of the political and administrative structures and systems of Pakistan.

Since July 2004, he has been the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) which partners with four public sector universities to reform mutually agreed systems of each and works with the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to develop policy briefs.

Selected Publications:

• Power and Civil Society in Pakistan, with Weiss, A. (eds.). Karachi: Oxford University Press.
  
• Personal and Social Power in Pakistan. In A. Weiss and Z. Gilani (eds), Power and Civil Society in Pakistan. Karachi: OUP.
  
• Authoritarian Thinking: Implications for Education, Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IV, No. 2, 1-16.
  
• Unveiling Bhutto. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXX Nos. 7 and 8, 376-379.
• Cultural Diversity in Managing the Employee Selection Event. In R.N. Kanungo & D. Saunders (eds.), New Approaches to Employment Management, Vol. 3. Greenwich CT: JAL. With Smith, P.B. & Peterson, M.F.

There is a rather sharp division between public (or state) and private (or civil society) sectors in Pakistan, a division that also prevails in higher education. There exists an antagonistic relationship between the public and private providers of higher education, though both ostensibly provide the same services. The historical baggage in this arena has resulted in confusions and lack of clarity at the policy level, a tendency to rigid position taking, and turf wars. Consequently issues of quality and equity in higher education have emerged that are detrimental to public good. By and large the public sector institutions, that are highly equitable, lack in quality. On the other hand, some institutions in the private sector have high standards and quality of education, but are unaffordable to the bulk of our populations. Thus, quality and equity have gotten separated, with institutions in the private sector catering to the former and the public sector to the latter. This is an untenable situation that is bound to erode the already bleak situation of higher learning in the country. This divide needs to be addressed in an informed manner at the policy level; otherwise we risk the emergence of apartheid in higher education, similar to that at other levels of schooling.

The research will examine the macro issue of provision of higher education by the state and the private sectors globally, but with a focus on developing countries, especially in the Muslim world. How are various countries dealing with the problem at the policy and pragmatic levels, with public good at the forefront? For example, a detailed study and analysis of work done in post-apartheid South Africa, with which I have good familiarity, will be one such component. The final output of this work will have dual value. One, it will enhance the academic understanding of policy-making and its impact on equity and quality. Two, it could have a pragmatic impact on policy-making in higher education such that the unfortunate divide between equity and quality may be bridged. The applicant has a significant edge for conducting the research because of considerable experience in both the public and private sectors in Pakistan, and well-established links with many institutions and individuals globally, but especially in the South.