Rise of pseudo-scholars and fall of academia – The Express Tribune

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Pursuing an MPhil or a PhD in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – and likely beyond – is less about genuine research and knowledge and more about chasing titles, securing higher salaries and flooding academia with meaningless publications. As a college teacher, I witness pseudo-scholars undeservedly obtaining these degrees through a deeply flawed system – one that values quantity over quality. If attaining an advanced degree requires mental rigour, why, then, does the system so often reward ineptitude instead?
Here in K-P, the pursuit of higher education, ideally driven by a thirst for knowledge and research, has degenerated into a salary-boosting practice where paper scholars fixate on monthly allowances – Rs2,500 for MPhil and Rs10,000 for PhD – at the cost of substantive research, often rehashing existing work, paraphrasing, plagiarising, fabricating data, manipulating citations and outsourcing their theses to ghostwriters; yet vehemently insisting on the fabricated originality of their research like a student who copies an entire assignment, tweaks a few words and insists it's original. Their theses flaunt polished English, but their everyday 'englishes' expose a striking disconnect between their claimed expertise and actual competence; English proficiency matters, but the bigger issue is intellectual hypocrisy.
This jeopardises trust in academic credentials both nationally and internationally as selective institutions rightly view such degrees with skepticism. Yet paradoxically many of these same scholars, once credentialed, step into roles as the next generation of supervisors, pass down poor mentorship and condition students to follow the same shortcuts they once took (much like untrained drivers becoming driving instructors). How can academic integrity exist when its custodians were never held to any standard?
At the root of the issue is a complicit web of universities and senior supervisors. Universities, desperate to climb rankings, operate as profit-first degree mills where research takes a backseat to money-making. A joke circulates in K-P's academic circles that even a passing donkey could earn a degree from some universities. Now I don't mean to be crude, but let's be honest – this isn't just a jest, it's an indictment! Supervisors, often inept for their positions, enable the very culture of academic dishonesty by customarily demanding co-authorship on research they have no part in, thereby cementing their own academic advancement while further undermining the integrity and credibility of the academic system.
The mass production of MPhil and PhD holders has inundated the province with scholars who lack research competence, intellectual depth and critical thinking, stifling innovation and eroding national progress and standing. Yet the trend relentlessly continues. The academic elite – those meant to be gatekeepers of scholarly excellence – are often the biggest enablers of this mediocrity, normalising deceptive academic practices and discouraging authentic scholarship. While a handful of scholars emerge as competent researchers, the majority contribute to a system that rewards academic fraud just as much as merit.
K-P's academic institutions stand at a tipping point: without sweeping reform, their credibility will continue to crumble beyond repair. Stricter regulations on research ethics, rigourous vetting of supervisors and an overhaul of incentives that prioritise quality over quantity along with independent audits and harsher penalties for misconduct must drive reform. Until then, K-P's PhDs and MPhils will remain mere cash grabs – enriching institutions and individuals while impoverishing the very essence of education.
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