English studies in Pakistan

On June 3, 2026 I had the honor of hosting a crucial national colloquium titled “English Studies in Pakistan: Bridging Linguistics and Literature in the 21st Century.” Organized by the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad, in collaboration with the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, this event brought together the brightest minds in our English academia. Intellectual stalwarts such as Prof. Dr. Aroosa Kanwal (QAU), Prof. Dr. Fauzia Janjua (IIUI), Prof. Dr. Ijaz Asghar (University of Sargodha), Prof. Dr. Arshad Mehmood (NUML), and Dr. Bradley Horn, Regional English Language Officer (RELO) of the US Embassy, alongside esteemed representatives from Air University, Foundation University, GCU Faisalabad, Fatima Jinnah Women University, and top HEC leadership, engaged in a transparent, vital debate on the future of higher education policy. However, what transpired during the sessions highlighted a deep, systemic rift that must be brought to national attention if the future of our youth is to be secured.

A central issue raised by the faculty was the structural dilution of specialized degrees. As Dr. Aroosa Kanwal pointed out, roughly 34% of the current English curriculum comprises general minors (such as Pakistan Studies, Islamic Studies, Mathematics and Statistics). While civic and cultural education is undeniably important, this heavy curricular load severely restricts the space required to cultivate deep linguistic competence, critical literary theory, and digital humanities. When academia challenged these rigid frameworks, the HEC leadership, represented by DG Academic Division Mr. Waheed Ahmed Mangi and MD NAHE Dr. Noor Amna Malik, responded with an inclusive rhetoric, framing HEC not as an isolated bureaucracy but as “us,” an ecosystem that incorporates university faculty at every consultative level. Yet, the palpable difference of opinion in the room painted a very different picture of this partnership.

The academic faculty voiced a collective, long-standing frustration: while HEC organizes such collaborative forums almost every year, and universities meticulously send written policy recommendations, these letters disappear into a bureaucratic vacuum. The academic community is routinely met with absolute silence, receiving neither formal acceptance nor constructive rejection. In response, the HEC representatives shifted the onus back to the educators, citing a lack of formal “follow-ups” and inviting faculty members to visit the HEC offices to discuss individual institutional concerns. While individual dialogue is welcome, it bypasses the need for structured, transparent, and systemic policy reforms, leaving universities to navigate institutional challenges on an ad-hoc basis.

Furthermore, a critical debate emerged regarding media presence and public advocacy. Faculty members rightly questioned HEC on its strategy for leveraging public media to ensure academic voices are integrated into macro-level national policies. The HEC representatives provided a pragmatically sharp response: their mandate is to build the platform and fund the discourse, but it remains the ultimate responsibility of the host institutions to aggressively engage the media and project these vital conversations into the national spotlight.

Perhaps the most startling revelation of the colloquium came from HEC’s stance on employability. When confronted with the stark mismatch between traditional academic syllabi and the dynamic requirements of the modern job market, the HEC leadership stated that academic institutions exist strictly to serve the purpose of “academia”, asserting that if students wish to secure employment, they must seek specialized skills. This philosophical stance demands urgent national reflection. Can a developing nation like Pakistan afford higher education policies that separate academic degrees from economic survival? If our universities are purely spaces for abstract theory, detached from professional skills, we are inadvertently engineering massive underemployment for the next generation of English graduates.

I urge policymakers, university administrations, and the public to bridge this gap. We must transform English studies from a static, heavily regulated discipline into a dynamic, market-responsive field. True educational policy cannot be achieved through unacknowledged letters or isolated office visits; it requires open media engagement, structural curricular autonomy, and a conscious integration of professional skills within our degree frameworks. The future of Pakistan’s English academia, and the professional survival of its students, depends entirely on addressing these hard truths today.