Future of MPhil/PhD in Pakistan

Future of MPhil is always a PhD. Future of PhD is in universities or research organizations that value researchers who can obtain funded research. There are several universities, consortiums, collaborations that are obtaining hundreds of millions of Rupees (even billions) funded research from foreign and local sources in Pakistan.

For Example NCAI, National Center of Artificial Intelligence at NUST which has engaged around 400 researchers from various disciplines and universities around pakistan. Other examples include CASPR at CUST Islamabad, KICS at UET Lahore, UVAS, UoL, LUMS, IBA, ZU, AKU, COMSATS , Dow, …. Etc etc. In private as well as public universities, there are many universities which have discovered the real value of research beyond just getting professorial appointments.

If you have done MPhil/PhD then you are expected to have the competence to write a research proposal for a currently advertised funded grant! An MPhil/PhD is expected to be able to research on the net, find a grant suitable for his/her area and interest, find collaborative researchers in universities, establish a suitable linkage and send the proposal via a university to the funding agency.

Which universities? There are ORIC departments at many universities that are approved for NRPU grants by HEC. Find collaborators for your research proposal from these universities. Find a PI or a CoPI from these universities. You can be working anywhere but can move the proposal through an enterprising university professor. Don’t wait for joining a university. You can embark on a challenging journey. In some cases there is a group or two of a few researchers who have initiated the process even if the university as a whole is lagging behind.

Remember you have to struggle hard to establish the necessary research culture if it is already not there. You just need a few committed researchers to embark on this journey.

Link to NCAI

Caspr Research Group