“Get good education and move to a bad neighborhood” was a constant advice I received from my advisor over the last six years that I spent at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) as a Fulbright scholar for my MS and PhD programs in Computer Science.
As soon as I realized that I was going to graduate in Fall 2009, I started sending out my resume to prospective employers in Pakistan. I started telling the world, ‘Look, I am young, energetic, full of ideas, and I have a PhD. I would like to improve (almost) everything. Hire me!’ So, with a beard on my face and “all the single ladies” tone on my blackberry, I returned to my homeland with the hope that I would get my dream job in few days, and will live happily ever after. Little did I know that what would follow was a time to make tough decisions and to re-explore the definitions of “higher education” in Pakistan.
I traveled to 13 cities, appeared in 35 interviews, and received 26 job offers. Academia, private companies, government organization, and NGOs — I explored every opportunity that I could. The majority of my interviews were at universities, and this is what I would like to share here.
For me, a university needs three things to survive and progress: teaching, institution-building, and research. I believe that everyone in Pakistan is doing a decent job in teaching. Of course, some are better than others and there is always a room for improvement but thanks to HEC’s syllabus recommendations, at least we know what we are supposed to teach.
There is a gap in institution building. Most universities in Pakistan are dependent on one person; if that person was removed, the whole institute may collapse. For example, what comes to your mind when we say Dr. Javed Leghari, Dr. Arshad Ali, Dr. Wahab, and Dr. Naveed Malik? SZABIST, NUST SEECS, MAJU, and Virtual University. We need to produce clones of these fine individuals – a lot of them – so that the institutions can survive for the next 100 years, and more. But, I don’t find myself educated or experienced enough to play that role as yet. I was just a student a few weeks ago and now, all of a sudden, I am an “expert” on everything? I totally disagree.
For now, I want to do research, and write proposals for funding. Very few people in Pakistan are correctly doing that, and I want to add value in that area. I also wanted to join an institution that gave me ample time to work on my projects. That means having a reasonable teaching load and limited administrative responsibilities.
There are several other interesting problems that one has to face after coming back to Pakistan. For example, during my interview process, the registrar of a well-known university told me that I would have more value if I had graduated from Karachi instead of Khairpur, and if I was born in Karachi instead of Sukkur. In another instance, my interviewer told me that I can only publish in HEC-recognized journals in ‘W’ category (I have no clue what that is), and everything else is useless. I tried my best to explain to him that we have quite a few reputable conferences in computer science, with the acceptance rate as low as 5%, but he wasn’t ready to listen. He told me that if I don’t have an Impact Factor of at least 5 (again, based on HEC recognized journals’ list) I won’t qualify for “HEC-approved PhD Supervisor” and he won’t hire me.
Government organizations have a totally different hiring style. You have to get an application form from a particular officer, fill-it-out with black ink, make 7 copies, attach 9 photographs and 8 CNIC copies duly signed and attested by a first class magistrate in the city court, and submit it via postal service with the demand draft of Rs 200! Well, I do not have patience to do all that, so I gave up after applying to a few places. Another issue with the government organizations is the salary package and the only perk they usually offer is the “permanent” position.
Private universities offer high salaries and good incentives packages; smaller universities pay the highest amount. For example, a fresh PhD can get an excellent salary package and directly become an associate professor (skipping the assistant professor position) or even the Head of Department somewhere in rural Punjab or interior Sind. The salary is between Rs 40, 000 and Rs. 80, 000 for Masters, and Rs. 80, 000 and Rs. 200, 000 for PhDs. Universities with good working and research environment usually pay far less from what you can get at a relatively new setups.
The problem I had with small private institutes is twofold: first of all, they have totally unrealistic expectations. They think that after returning from the U.S, you have a magic stick that can use to turn their institutes into LUMS in no time, and you alone can do all the work. The second problem is one’s personal and professional growth. There is very little hope of doing original research after being bombarded by unprofessional and entirely commercial interests of the management. In one instance, my employer told me, that he is not hiring me to teach, or “do some research that [he] cannot understand” because he had several “low-salary individuals who can do that.”
The teaching load in most of the universities is another issue. In one instance, I was requested to teach 12 credit hours per semester (4 courses), be an advisor to a batch of 113 students, be the convocation manager, and I was expected to spend 40% of my time on administrative work.
After going through this prolonged exercise, I came to the conclusion that there are very few places where I can work while surviving the reverse cultural-shock; places that offer a good working environment, have professional ethics, and understand the needs of a young researcher. GIK Institute turned out to be a good choice for me. GIKI makes landing very smooth for returning scholars. Pay is good, and teaching load is very reasonable (two courses every semester and summer teaching is optional). Perks include a free 5-room luxury apartment, schooling for kids, medical center, including the cost of diagnostic tests and medicines, internet, campus-wide telephone, and house maintenance (you will know how big a blessing it is when you have to find a plumber in Karachi). The location has its own charm; pollution-free environment and a quiet and secure campus. Furthermore, there is a lot of space for your own research lab. GIKI also gave me a seed funding to start my research center. So, for me, GIKI turned out to be the best choice. For others, especially those who might have their homes in major metropolitan cities and don’t have to pay a hefty monthly rent, other universities may be a good option as well.
While I am learning the ropes of my new job, I would like to leave the readers outside Pakistan with one request: In the end, this is our country, it deserves to be better, it can be better, and we will make it better. Please return to your homeland. We need a lot of you to synergize our efforts for a prosperous Pakistan. Amen!
Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani is an assistant professor in the faculty of Computer Science at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Science and Technology. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of STEP.
Zeeshan,
I remember interviewing you at SZABIST. While you were at SZABIST did you noticed that we are about to collapse. As our previous president left 3 months back. Infact we opened three new research centers in my department only. Our top management is, I would say, more stronger than ever and inshAllah growth will be phenomenal. I can say this from my experience as i have been long affiliated with SZABIST. And you judged this in 30 minutes you spent with us while having coffee, convincing us that SZABIST is the best institute that you would like to join and how SZABIST is close to your Heart. After offering you a place at SZABIST (2 courses and head research center of your choice – i.e. for fresh PhD) you didn’t even had the courtesy to call back and let us know that you are not going to join us. And then I saw your article it totally took me by surprise.
Dr Imran Amin
Dean Faculty of Computer Sciences
Dear Dr. Amin
Thanks for your note. I did sent an email on 2nd January 2010 to HR office (zabhr@szabist.edu.pk) and CC to you and Qashif Effendi about my choice.
I am happy to hear about all of the good work SZABIST is doing. I only share my personal experience and thoughts and do not expect everyone to agree with it. I hope and pray that you and your team will prove me wrong. Even I pray that all of the concerns, feelings and fear that I shared should not be faced again by any other scholar. Ameen!
Keep up the good work
Wassalam
Zeeshan Usmani
Dear Dr Amin,
With my earnest apologies, the very first sentence of your “While you were at SZABIST did you noticed that we are about to collapse” is sarcastic deep in its essence….. In whole of the Zeeshan’s article, there is no such taste found towards any institution including SZABIST. He has a candid opinion and let us grow mature enough to agree the disagreement that is exactly what our country lacking in. what exactly is evident in your paragraph is… stalk repudiation to the difference of opinion.
I would like to discuss about Mr. Zeeshan Usmani , i agree with you comments and experience you have had with Zeeshan , as he has been my student during his BCS as petromant sukkur.
These kind of people say a lot about country which is too good but actually they look for their own benefit.
Thank you,
Farhan
farhanishaque@hotmail.com
[...] other day I read Dr. Usmani’s article “From Florida to Topi: A Returning Fulbright Scholar’s Search for an Academic Position” on STEP. I sincerely appreciate his return (to Pakistan), and his desire to serve. However, in [...]
I returned from EU and joined one university in Pakistan. I must say that there are two issues that are very pressing about current environment in Pakistan. First there is no avenue for young original thinkers, to bring their imagination in real world. ICT fund forces you to forge partnership with PHDs in universities who have other responsibilities and also kill the freedom and flexibility that is needed in initial phases of idea. Secondly, people have no idea how to do research. They tend to stay on superficial things, and people are not given enough time/freedom to develop something original. In short, people have no idea what a research culture is.
Dear Usman,
Thank you for the worthy comments, I really do the support of your analysis. Basically I did analyse the same. The course outline in the universities is to generate a clerical and operational staff, speacially in the final projects we adopt the logic of dinosour age.
Here in UK Indians are really doing well, create some professional approach and ethics then insha’Allah we will all gather in our home land and do the research.
Regards,
Saleem Suri
What people need to realize is breakthrough research takes a long time. You cannot manage research or innovation as you manage the work of a plumber. You cannot come and ask everyday or week what is the progress, if you are looking for breakthrough. Moreover, researchers need to be given noiseless rooms, and relatively long periods to ponder or concentrate or do lateral reading. In research environment, there should be 50% thinking, 40% reading and 10% doing.
We are a failed state and our elders have failed it. Therefore, we should look at successful entities not our elders for guidance.
Oh Dear we are not a fail state, ” Pakistan Allah ke razon mai se ik Razz hai”.
We will survive insha’Allah, be hopeful.
I know my people, Just boost their moral they will plant the Neem tree at moon.
We always be thankful to our elders as they have done alot– Our heroes Dr.AQ Khan and Dr abdus salaam.
Now it’s our turn.
Wasalaam,
Saleem Suri
Usman,
Can you please share a (somewhat) concrete example of the problems you are talking about?
For example, what do you mean when you say that forging partnerships with PhDs “kill(s) the freedom and flexibility that is needed in initial phases of idea”?
To Bilal Zafar: Sorry I should have used the word professor rather than PHD.My point is professors best do basic research and teaching and should be given role as technical advisors to research projects.Project director role should be given to person entrusted with bring innovation to market.
A career path is often a road from Karachi to Islamabad or anywhere else for this example. Some prefer to take highway, some a train, some a plane and some just do whatever it takes to do what they want to do. We look for opportunities that suits us and the companies look for the candidates that suit them. Until and unless we find that perfect match its a bumpy ride all the way to our destnation.
Dr. Zeeshan you are lucky that you have the choices which most Pakistanis do not get. Now that you have that ideal job, what you do to improve the systems witin your surroundings would be starting point for you to make it a better environment for others to come and you will be judged by the benchmark you joined GIKI.
PS. Provinding one room out of you 5 bedroom mention, free of charge to one of the less privillaged student won’t be bad idea. Think of it as a “ROOM FOR RESEARCH”.
Hats off to Dr. Usmani. I cannot tolerate if someone tells me how to use my own house.
@Adnan
You expect a married man to give up a room in his house so that some stranger can live there?? You think that it is approriate for some random student to be living in Dr. Zeeshan’s house (with his wife) while he is teaching?
It is obvious Adnan that you are hoping that this underpriviledged student is you. Adnan, you are the sort of people this whole article is about. You expect so much from other people for free.
Dear Dr. Usmani,
While I greatly admire your patriotism and your longing that every one outside Pakistan should return back to Pakistan, I do not completely agree that this is the only way one can serve Pakistan.
I pray that you get great success in Pakistan, but you would realize sooner or later that Pakistani expatriates in other countries can be of as much help to Pakistan as people like you within Pakistan. To stereotype, I can give you the example of Indian expatriates, who are one of the reasons that so many US universities know by heart the names of many Indian universities and are willing to admit Indian students with full funding, etc. I think the thing we CANNOT afford is that no one returns back to Pakistan. But as long as there is enough balance between people returning back and staying abroad (if they are not bound by any agreements with HEC, USAID, etc.), we will be in good shape.
Dear Reader
Thanks for your note. Yes, I do agree that one can serve the motherland while working abroad. It depends where are you and what you can do.
Thanks
An excellent article to encourage us and keep up our hopes! Pakistan might not be providing ideal solutions to all but it’s the kind of attitude we hold that matters. I just read another article here regarding Pakistan having some of the brightest students and it’s true. I personally know a few individuals who were recognized by their institutions and sent to the best schools around the world, on Scholarship basis. Being ambitious and clear in our mind, what we want to do is all it takes to be on the right track.
I wish you good luck in your job and the research projects that you may undertake. Research never stops, there can’t be a perfect research but it’s the research which helps us discover things :)
Especially the last para of this article is worth contemplating. If all the brightest minds work together I’m sure Pakistan will come out of the problems it’s facing at the moment. Unity is Power!
I agree to most of the stuff Dr. Usmani said above. Just to add my two cents: In order to change the overall culture of academics and research in Pakistan, young people coming back to Pakistan should involve themselves in the management and administration roles too. Being a researcher, I know the thrill and craving that comes from the long hours sitting in a lab doing some experiment or reading interesting and mind boggling theories or may be thinking and implementing the ideas but we as being in a country which lacks the very culture of R&D from its base should sacrifice some of that precious time that we spend or want to spend doing research and do some multitasking. I hope having more young, energetic and highly-qualified people in management and administration will definitely change the way things are being done atm and the way they should be done. :)
ta ta.
PS:
On the previous arguments about fragility of Pakistani institutions (that they would fall if the some personality disappears), see the pov of Dr. Abidi. I think this explains what Dr. Usmani meant to say:
http://www.nextstepforward.net/general-pakistan/interview-asad-abidi-part1/
it has been a pleasure to read the article.. Good luck with your career @ GIKI . I am glad to know talented people like you, are joining my home institute.
GOD SPEED
Ali Raza
GIKI Alumni (batch 10)
Please get over your self-eulogizing trance and a super-hyped sense of patriotism.
Also can you please fix your resume … if you are pre-selected for a credit card application — That does not count as an award!
he might stay on, he might leave eventually, he might get some things done and he might not, he might make a change or he might not…the article was pretty candid and did not name any names…
on the other hand your response to the article by using personal information about Zeeshan is rather below the belt…it reeks of callousness
you should be ashamed for using private information (what ever it might be!) against someone in such a manner on a public form. This is not about fulbright, GIK or any other institution. Its common courtesy and social ethics.
More drama, less reality.
Where does GIKI get money to people like you? Obviously from the pockets of rich.
How teaching to children of elite anr rich only at GIKI will help Pakistan?
As soon as you are over with J1 home residency requirement, the ghost of patriotism will fly to USA. Then you will be writing other stories – what a shame!
I am amazed that Fulbright, a prestigious scholarship, is being awarded for such low-ranked schools as Florida Institute of Technology. What credentials does such a person has to begin with who is going to FIT for PhD! Gone are the days when Fulbright was handed out to top-10 students in the country for prestigious programs like Stanford and Illinois. With the war on terror, every alpha and beta, has his day. Anyway, it breaks even in the end I presume. A PhD from the lowest ranked American schools is as useless as our help to the US military on the war on terror haha …
Looking at number of comments and discussions going on I think there are scholars in Pakistan which can do quite a lot however our structure do not allow them to spend time on actual productive tasks and therefore result is in front of you. I would again say its not fault of the country or professors working there, the structure is such that if you need to get something done either do it yourself or be patient and pray a lot. Thats why there are 7 or 8 mosques in every neighbourhood.
On serious side its the same in most countries. Someone expert in one area might not have to work all the time in that area. Every institution need an inspiring name and I agree that there are people who work so hard that whole institution becomes attached to their efforts which is positive and these are exceptional people and we need everyone to work hard not just 1 or 2 people. One of the examples I would like to give here is if you are walking with group of people and and one of you is slow then you either have to walk with him at slow pace or you can run and leave him. Now we have a third option here which is quite unique. We run do our stuff and come back and help the slowest one. Other countries group slow ones and fast ones separately to get the task done. We are learning this and these exceptional people are those who are running a family, university, research and a country.
Proud to be a Pakistani
Can you believe this dude has already left GIKI? One year and he is gone! and here he was talking about the incentives of being at GIKI. Huh! pathetic!
Really he has left GIK! All this patriotic talk just went flying out the window.
Where has he gone?
Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani
Chief of Research
Interactive Group, Islamabad, Pakistan
zeeshan.usmani@iacgrp.com
I came to know that Mr. Usmani is involved in some kind of software development that would actually gauge potential bombings before hand. How true is that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLng7tBXa1U
Dear Usman,
I must appreciate the way you have given this presentation and have taken an initiative to write this article. I am going to enter the last year of my PhD and I am sure your experience and the rest of the discussion would be very useful. Where ever you are I hope and Pray that you will be successful and doing good for yourself and for the country. Ameen.
Pakistan Zindabad.