Pakistan Observer, March 1, 2021
Electronic theses: Where Pakistan stands
By Abid Hussain
https://pakobserver.net/electronic-theses-where-pakistan-stands/
Electronic thesis in Pakistan have got immense pace for the last two
decades, but the year 2006 is regarded as milestone in the history of
Electronic theses. When Dr Ata-Ur-Rahman took the responsibility as
Chairman of Higher Education Commission, he for the first time
introduced the Pakistan Research Repository. Pakistan has become a land
of quality research for the last several years.
New universities have been set up. As per HEC website, there are 218
universities in Pakistan; 134 are Public Sector Universities; however, 84
are private degree-awarding universities. Each university offers a degree in
BS, Master, MPhil, and even PhD programme. These universities’ mission
is to transmit knowledge through instructions, scholarship and research.
Universities are meant to apply knowledge through public services.
Each university offers library services in the disciplines they deal.
Universities conduct research on a variety of topics and produce Theses
binding formats. Now the question arises where these Theses goes around?
The answer is: to a supervisor, HEC, and libraries.
Libraries preserve such Theses in the locked shelves and grant no access
to the young scholars. Thesis is pre-requisition for obtaining MPhil and
PhD degrees. Thesis provides background knowledge for the scholars to
discover new facts from the old knowledge yet to be researched.
Students in Pakistan and abroad rely more on open Google. American
Library Association conducted a general survey and assumed that 92% of
scholars worldwide are researching the open access material available on
Google and like search engines. People shuffle only 8% of the material for
research. 92% of material exists in the printed format available in libraries
(Physically) or has been locked and out of access for researchers (available
in Paid Databases like JSTOR, Taylor & Francis, Springer link, Projectmuse, and alike Databases.
Physicists first started the E-Thesis initiative in 1991. When they
introduced the Arxiv in 1991, it was an Open Repository system.The
purpose of this initiative was to showcase the scholarly works of
Physicists on a broader level.Since that time, numerous projects have been
made available in different countries. A few praiseworthy examples for
Electronic Thesis are: DART-Europe E-Thesis portal offers more than
106,000 doctoral Electronic Thesis.Ethos is a digital library project which
provides free online Thesis. PQDT Open is a project of Proquest which
covers research from Canada and the USA. MIT Digital library offers a
collection of Thesis at the Master’s and PhD. levels.
Worldwide ETD Indexes offers a collection of online Thesis and
dissertations and helps researchers find material in their respective
fields.Pakistan Research Repository was a splendid project for the
researchers in Pakistan and abroad. The project is still available online and
can be accessed via the internet. It only covers PhD and MPhil Thesis.
Universities in Pakistan do not fully cooperate to offer retrospective and
current research as generated in electronic formats.They sent a copy to the
HEC Repository in printed form only and bothered to send electronic
version of the same copy. Today’s age is the age of technology and
people do not visit the library physically. They need electronic copies of
books, articles and even Theses. Public sector universities in Pakistan
produce quality research, but there is still a dire need for Electronic
Thesis. Thesis in Electronic formats has become need of the day. HEC
may either update the old software being utilized for MPhil and PhD
Thesis or produce indigenous software to preserve electronic Thesis.
A login password ought to be granted to universities in Pakistan and
should be directed to put their Thesis on HEC portal.
Open research appeals researchers more than that of paid contents. HEC is
requested to extend the Pakistan Research Repository project at provincial
level to make all electronic Theses available for the present and
forthcoming generations. Teamwork could make it more expedited.Quality
research is a dream job for a common Pakistani and that could only be
achieved through the monitoring system of HEC.Preserving Electronic
researches on HEC website can bring these dreams into reality.
—The writer is working as Library Officer in Institute of Strategic
Studies, a think-think based in Islamabad.