Pakistan’s Universities Are Bleeding Talent—And We’re Watching It Happen
A brilliant young student from a village in Punjab recently told me she had to abandon her dream of university education, not because she lacked merit, but because her family couldn’t afford tuition, books, and travel. Her story is not unique; it is emblematic of a nationwide crisis. Pakistan is bleeding its future, and the wounds are self-inflicted.
Across the country, public universities are facing an unprecedented enrollment crisis. Nationally, university admissions have dropped by 13% in just the past year, leaving our campuses emptier and our postgraduate research pipelines dangerously thin. At the University of Peshawar, PhD enrollment has plummeted from 178 students in 2020 to just 66 in 2025. In Punjab, many universities report 20% to 30% declines across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. These numbers are more than statistics, they are warnings that our higher education system is failing the very students it was meant to empower.
This is not merely an economic problem, though rising poverty, now estimated at over 25%, has made university unaffordable for countless families. It is not merely a demographic trend, though population growth and migration have reshaped student populations. This is a systemic failure rooted in neglect: outdated curricula, weak faculty engagement, limited industry linkages, and underfunded institutions.
For decades, curricula have remained static, while the labor market has evolved. Employers now seek graduates with digital literacy, problem-solving skills, and interdisciplinary knowledge, skills seldom cultivated in traditional degree programs. Students recognize the mismatch and are turning to short-term certifications, freelancing, and online programs that promise quicker, more tangible returns. Meanwhile, universities struggle to maintain relevance. Departments in social sciences, computer science, and emerging technologies report years without a single new PhD student. Our intellectual infrastructure is atrophying.
The consequences extend far beyond the classroom. A shrinking postgraduate cohort undermines research, cripples innovation, and weakens Pakistan’s capacity to compete in a global knowledge economy. It exacerbates socio-economic inequality: access to quality higher education is increasingly reserved for the urban and affluent. This is a slow-motion national crisis, one that threatens economic growth, social mobility, and the very engine of future innovation.
The solution is neither simple nor incremental. Pakistan must act decisively to:
Make education affordable: Expand scholarships, subsidize transportation and housing, and implement fee structures that reflect students’ economic realities.
Modernize curricula: Integrate digital literacy, applied research, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary approaches that align with labor market demands.
Strengthen industry linkages: Facilitate internships, co-designed curricula, and job pipelines to ensure graduates are employable and relevant.
Enhance faculty accountability: Enforce structured mentorship frameworks to ensure postgraduate students are guided to completion.
Increase investment: Raise public spending on higher education well beyond the current 1.77% of GDP to restore institutional capacity and research infrastructure.
This is not a distant policy debate. This is about the young minds now leaving our universities, or never entering them at all. It is about the talent that could have fueled Pakistan’s innovation economy, now drifting toward short-term gains or foreign shores.
This isn’t just an education crisis; it is a national security issue. Neglect our universities, and we neglect the very foundations of progress, competitiveness, and prosperity. We cannot afford another generation lost to inaction. The time for structural reform is not tomorrow, it is now.
