Although I am a new bee in exploring the knowledge corridors of academia; however, I have started finding some patterns in how this structure is working and why it’s not creating any real impact. This op-ed is aimed at highlighting what we lack in the dissemination of social sciences across universities in Pakistan as per my observations.
I would like to pitch my case through a personal anecdote, and from that I will try to build my case. So, I am a newly appointed lecturer at the Department of Political Science & International Relations at the University of Management & Technology. Normally, when you are at the start of your teaching career, you have to put in some extra effort to prepare yourself for classes. The same is happening to me these days. I usually in free time spend my time in a library to figure out themes for classes. Usually, when I am in the library, I come across students, and sometimes we have random conversations either about the subject or some other themes. It’s always interesting to hear students’ perspectives on the world around them.
Last week, as usual, I was in the library and a student pursuing the last year of her degree in social sciences randomly sat beside me. Conversation started. I randomly asked a question about how she evaluated her overall experience. Her answer had pessimistic vibes attached to it. From her conversation, it seemed she was not into her subject and did not see any life in the subject which was reflected in the comment that she did not want to pursue it further. When I tried to explore her more regarding why she considered her subject this way, she answered that it’s too mechanical and she did not find a way how to connect with it in real life.
The story I shared, it’s not one person’s story. Maybe this analogy seems an exaggeration at face value, but, to some extent, it’s a depiction of our existing academic landscape. Maybe not all students feel the same way about social sciences, but there is no denying the fact that a majority of students, honestly speaking just like the above student, don’t find life in social sciences. They don’t want to stay in social sciences after graduation and want to switch either their discipline or go for any other random job for which they have zero understanding. Why I am painting the picture this way, it’s because at some point in time being a student of social sciences, I felt the same way, as pictured in the story of the above student.
Being on the other side of the podium, I think, we are not pitching social sciences in front of the students the way it should be. Students enter universities in raw shape. They bring with them a lot of motivation. It’s we who are on the other side of the podium who can keep their energy alive or extinguish their motivation. When social sciences are pitched merely at the conceptual level in front of students and they are not able to locate those concepts in the world around them, certainly it will create repulsion in them toward the whole field which is disastrous for society at large.
It’s high time that universities reclaim their space in the realm of civil society as the vibrancy of any civil society is dependent upon vibrant universities. In other words, the death of universities is the death of civil society in any country, and the death of civil society is the death of a nation as a whole.
Social sciences can give birth to a vibrant civil society in any country. Universities are breeding grounds for the creation of a dynamic civil society. Universities hold soft power in their hands. Universities can make people think and feel in a desired way through the dissemination of critical curricula. They can mould minds. They can create beacons of change in society. They can bring structural issues of society in front of the young lot (students) and channel their untapped potential for the resolution of those issues.
This is high time that universities reconsider their approach to social sciences. Curricula need to be updated. Faculty needs to be trained for the dissemination of knowledge in a critical manner. Funded research opportunities should be provided so that an environment can be created for critically exploring social sciences. Only, through a concerted, coordinated, and proactive approach, we can inspire life in social sciences; otherwise, a gloomy future is waiting ahead of us with more than 65% youth as part of the demographic in case we turn a blind eye to the dying world of social sciences.
I would like to end this op-ed with this note that universities constitute a major part of civil society in any country. It’s high time that universities reclaim their space in the realm of civil society as the vibrancy of any civil society is dependent upon vibrant universities. In other words, the death of universities is the death of civil society in any country, and the death of civil society is the death of a nation as a whole.
