Gender inequality and academic freedom in Pakistani higher education

Academic freedom and the right to express one’s views in higher education (HE) are important for faculty and students alike, so enabling intellectual integrity and professional autonomy. However, this might not be the case for female academics in countries where females are marginalised, and their opinions are dominated and limited by the society and culture. Gender inequality and how it negatively influences the opportunities available for females to progress is a universal issue; however, although initiatives designed to tackle this problem are being seen to result in gradual improvement internationally, particularly in industrial countries, the situation in developing countries remains a concern. In developing countries, women tend to be either absent from many organisations or exist at the margins of organisational life with the result that they have fewer opportunities for development or career progression. This has a negative impact on the growth and development of a country at national level, particularly when there has been investment in female education from an earlier stage. It would seem that this certainly is the case in Pakistan where cultural norms intertwine with organisational politics thus militating against female employees. The experiences and issues discussed in this chapter highlight the social barriers faced by female academics in HE that have a significant impact on their academic freedom and expression

Women's leadership in the Asian Century: does expansion mean inclusion?

This paper draws on British Council commissioned research in response to concerns about women's absence from senior leadership positions in higher education in South Asia. The study sought existing knowledge from literature, policies, and available statistics and collected original interview data from 30 academics in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. A central finding was that gender is not a category of analysis in higher education policy, research or statistical data in the region. Our interview data suggest that leadership was frequently not an object of desire for women. Being associated with particular types of masculinities, leadership often carried a heavy affective load for those women who transgressed patriarchal socio-cultural norms and disrupted the symbolic order of women being led by men. Leadership was frequently perceived and experienced by women in terms of navigating a range of ugly feelings and toxicities that depleted aspirations, well-being and opportunities

The learners' perspective on internal medicine ward rounds: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ward rounds form an integral part of Internal Medicine teaching. This study aimed to determine the trainees' opinions regarding various aspects of their ward rounds, including how well they cover their learning needs, how they would like the rounds to be conducted, and differences of opinion between medical students and postgraduates.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 134 trainees in Internal Medicine, comprising medical students, interns, residents and fellows, who were asked to fill in a structured, self-designed questionnaire. Most of the responses required a rating on a scale of 1-5 (1 being highly unsatisfactory and 5 being highly satisfactory).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Teaching of clinical skills and bedside teaching received the lowest overall mean score (Mean ± SD 2.48 ± 1.02 and 2.49 ± 1.12 respectively). They were rated much lower by postgraduates as compared to students (p < 0.001). All respondents felt that management of patients was the aspect best covered by the current ward rounds (Mean ± SD 3.71 ± 0.72). For their desired ward rounds, management of patients received the highest score (Mean ± SD 4.64 ± 0.55), followed by bedside examinations (Mean ± SD 4.60 ± 0.61) and clinical skills teaching (Mean ± SD 4.50 ± 0.68). The postgraduates desired a lot more focus on communication skills, counselling and medical ethics as compared to students, whose primary focus was teaching of bedside examination and management. A majority of the respondents (87%) preferred bedside rounds over conference room rounds. Even though the duration of rounds was found to be adequate, a majority of the trainees (68%) felt there was a lack of individual attention during ward rounds.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights important areas where ward rounds need improvement in order to maximize their benefit to the learners. There is a need to modify the current state of ward rounds in order to address the needs and expectations of trainees.</p

Transnational higher education : a stock take of current activity

Transnational higher education (TNHE) development is not an entirely new international activity in the education services sector. The nature and scale of the global expansion of contemporary TNHE developments are, however, changing substantially. An understanding of this growth is currently largely lacking because of a dearth of comprehensive statistics. The scale of the latter TNHE developments has been particularly hard to identify and has until now been largely based on guesstimates. This article is an attempt at filling this gap. Through a triangulation methodology of available secondary data, this article is a very first attempt at providing a stock take of the current level of activity in TNHE worldwide.<br /