Research is the bedrock of tertiary education, and is the imperative objective of higher education. It is a common perception that our universities do not produce quality research that may meet international standards.
There are various reasons regarding lack of academic research. One of the major issues is that supervisors do not consider research at the undergraduate level actual research in the real sense. They presume that students would submit theses that are done on the basis of copying material from somewhere, which is plagiarism, or from a cluster of sources, which is organised plagiarism.
Research at bachelor’s level is considered an activity in which students only learn how to do research. The research produced is not given weightage even if some students perform relatively well.
There is no system to publish research done by undergraduate students, and though universities have many journals, no space is provided to students in those journals.
There is no guidance regarding research publication, so the manuscript goes to some storeroom and is buried there for good. Ostensibly, students know that their research will not contribute anything to academia, and that it will never get published and, therefore, is of no use.
As a result, the research produced is nothing but a means to get a degree on time rather than a tool to contribute to the academic field.
Education ministries, academia and university administrations should work on launching journals specifically for undergraduate students so that they may be encouraged to produce genuine research. This will surely increase students’ inquisitiveness which will reflect in their research work.
ANAS TARIQ
KURRAM
