Pakistan’s universities ‘must engage students’ to beat extremism

Heads of Pakistani universities have come together to pre-empt extremism on campuses, urging the sector to do more to involve students in civic life and to look out for those vulnerable to extreme ideologies.

In late July, the heads of 27 institutions put forward recommendations to promote “peace and tolerance” on campuses, calling for universities to embed the agenda in curricula as well as extracurricular activities.

The move comes six years since the violent death of a student at Abdul Wali Khan University, which shook the country and its universities. In 2017, a violent mob of students beat and killed their classmate for allegedly posting blasphemous material online.

While incident prompted a reckoning among many Pakistani universities in the province, the sector has much more work to do to address the problem, said Murtaza Noor, national coordinator of Pakistan’s Inter University Consortium for the Promotion of Social Sciences, the largest network of Pakistani universities.

“Extremist tendencies [are causing] a very serious situation,” he said. “There’s a realisation that instead of countering extremism, we should take preventative measures.”

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Like others, Professor Noor pointed to the absence of students’ unions – which were abolished in Pakistan during martial law in the mid-1980s – as a cause for the problem.

“Before 2017, there was no proper structure for student societies, there was less attention to extracurricular activities. Most of the universities were not…properly engaging the students,” he said.

While there has been a rise in the number of student clubs since then, universities must do more to involve students inside and outside the classroom, Professor Noor said.

Dozens of vice-chancellors have called on the entirety of the sector to embrace changes with this aim. Institutions have been asked to embed a slew of activities in their offerings, from offering more clubs promoting literature and sports, to one-on-one psychological counselling and for-credit courses on social and religious tolerance.

“Antipathy towards criticism; divergence of opinion/expression of thoughts and holding dialogue is important for growth of an institution,” their recommendations read. “Structural problems need to be addressed, i.e. curriculum needs to be enriched by incorporating content related to peace, tolerance, volunteerism and civic education.”

A road map developed by dozens of vice-chancellors also emphasised a need for students to have a stronger foundation in the humanities and social sciences, warning that there was a “dire need” for faculty training in “de-politicization and an early identification of students at risk” of falling prey to extremist ideologies.

While steps taken will vary by university, the idea is to integrate the agenda into curricula and extracurricular offerings at universities across Pakistan, said Professor Noor.

Gul Majid Khan, vice-chancellor of Islamia College in Pakistan’s Peshawar province, said that while 2017 was an especially horrific example of extremism affecting universities, other less-publicised incidents still took place on campuses. He noted that, especially after years of war in neighbouring Afghanistan, institutions were “very vulnerable” to extremists.

“The infiltration of such people in the campuses is a soft target for them,” he said. “Our young generations would be influenced by such people very easily.”

While he believed that his own institution had already made marked progress on involving students in campus life, with dozens of student societies to choose from, he warned that administrators must not be complacent.

“This topic is the need of the hour,” he said. “We need…interfaith harmony and peace globally, not only on campuses.”

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com