PHD AT QAU – A HOT CAKE

Pak. Math. Soc. Newsl., 5(1), 2006, ISSN 1816-2215

Up to now, only 38 Ph.D.s in mathematics have been produced at QAU. The first Ph.D. in mathematics was produced 24 years after the birth of Pakistan. Quaid-i-Azam University was hardly four years old when it produced Pakistan’s first Ph.D. in mathematics in 1971. Due to lack of incentives, inadequate support facilities and the absence of an appropriate mathematical environment, the production of doctorates in mathematics has been rather less than what it shall have been otherwise.

There has been a scarcity of mathematicians in Pakistan since 1947. Lack of interest in development of mathematics in Pakistan left it far behind compared with many developing countries even.

The following table shows the performance of individuals at QAU who have produced doctorates in various sub-branches of mathematics:

It is clear from the following table that mathematics did not receive adequate attention from those who were at the helm of affairs in mathematics for many years. If they had worked for mathematics, the result would have been much different.

From the figures in the table it is clear that by now Pakistan should have had about 20,000 to 30,000 PhD in mathematics. The locally produced Ph.D.s, according to the Mathematics Subject Classification 2000 (MSC-2000), work mostly in the following 5 specializations:

M.SC.-2000 #16        Associative Rings and Algebras,
M.SC.-2000 #20        Group Theory and Generalizations,
M.SC.-2000 #46        Functional Analysis,
M.SC.-2000#70         Mechanics, and
M.SC.-2000 #83        Relativity and Gravitational Theory.

Due to in-house breeding, many important branches were neglected and as a result now they are non-existent in Pakistan. The second generation of local PhDs are by and large producing substandard doctorates in Pakistan. In 2004, HEC started an extensive PhD programme to improve the state, especially of science and technology in Pakistan. It allocated a huge amount for its PhD programme and gave lucrative incentives for ‘PhD supervisors’ and ‘PhD students’. But, as it was expected, many individuals took the advantage and accepted as many HEC scholarship holders as their PhD students as possible. In mathematics, they virtually took as many as they were available in the ‘market’. As soon as it happened, HEC realized its mistake and in an effort to correct it, put a bar on taking no more than 10 students at a time. Even 10 is a big number. Many outstanding mathematicians in highly respected universities abroad do not take more than 2 or 3 at a time. The following table shows how some became ‘rich overnight’.

CURRENT Ph.D. STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN MATHEMATICS

It remains to be seen how manydoctorates the Mathematics Department at QAU will be able to produce in due course. A huge amount in the form of grant on PhD scholars is being spent. How much money will go in waste has yet to be seen in the coming few years. The students are already dissatisfied with a number of supervisors. Those who are unable to suggest any specific worthwhile research problem and supervise their students have already started looking for “ghost” supervisors. Some have even started offering money to “ghost” supervisors. Joint supervision, as marriages of convenience, are on the increase. In certain cases, one faculty member has started selling PhD theses for the price of getting political support for developing him as a head of a pressure group within the university. Of course with these practices, the quality of research work is being compromised. The theses are sent abroad to hastily inducted foreign referees who are not as relevantly qualified and competent as they were previously. The question, how many and of what quality doctorates will be produced out of these 61 scholars in due course, will be raised in future to those who have made a mockery of the term ‘scholarship’.