By Prof. Dr. Taimoor ul Hassan
The call to action for universities is not without precedent. History testifies that universities served as incubators of national ideology, social reform, and political resilience. In Pakistan, the role becomes more pronounced as the country navigates challenges ranging from fifth-generation warfare and regional subversion to internal fragmentation and ideological confusion, and this gap is being filled by military leadership.
This transformation requires more than slogans and symbolic gestures. It demands a sustained commitment to creating a knowledge infrastructure that not only educates but safeguards, that not only informs but inspires, and that not only produces professionals but nurtures patriots. This reorientation of higher education must rest on six interdependent pillars: curriculum reform, faculty empowerment, student engagement, strategic research, media training, and policy alignment.
1. Curriculum Reform: Rewriting for Relevance
One of the most urgent requirements is curriculum reform. The knowledge imparted in classrooms must be deeply rooted in Pakistan’s historical context, ideological foundations, and contemporary challenges. Unfortunately, our syllabi in many disciplines are outdated, Eurocentric, and disconnected from Pakistan’s socio-political reality.
Courses on Islamic ethics, Pakistan Studies, constitutional literacy, national security, and conflict resolution must be revised and made compulsory across all degree programs, including engineering, media, business, and social sciences. However, this cannot be reduced to dogma or tokenism. The focus should be on creating critical thinkers who understand Pakistan’s ideological identity and strategic environment while possessing the intellectual tools to engage with the world.
At the same time, content must reflect plurality within the Islamic framework, emphasizing unity, tolerance, peace, and justice. Pakistan’s students must be made aware not only of the threats to the nation’s ideological and territorial integrity but also of the democratic and spiritual ideals on which the country was founded.
2. Faculty Development: Preparing the Vanguard
Academicians are the frontline ideologues in this intellectual battle. Yet many faculty members, particularly in public universities, remain poorly trained, disconnected from national issues, and largely indifferent to ideological formation. Faculty development programs must be institutionalized across HEIs to train educators in national security discourse, Islamic thought, media literacy, and civic responsibility.
Seminars, policy workshops, and collaborative training with the military, civil society, and think tanks can help develop a faculty body capable of shaping student consciousness. Additionally, ideological clarity and constitutional patriotism must be made a part of faculty hiring and evaluation.
To ensure quality and continuity, universities should form “Academic Defence Councils” composed of senior scholars and experts to monitor curriculum delivery, guide national integration activities, and advise on ideological coherence.
3. Student Engagement: Producing Conscious Citizens
No effort will bear fruit unless students themselves become active participants in this vision. Students are the heart of any university, and their ideological grooming must go beyond textbooks. Co-curricular activities must promote national unity, inter-provincial harmony, and ethical leadership.
This could involve:
– Debates and Model Parliaments on issues of national interest.
– Civic Engagement Drives focusing on countering extremism, communal violence, and digital misinformation.
– Interfaith and Interethnic Dialogues to reduce polarization and promote inclusive nationalism.
– Compulsory Community Service linked with student credit hours to instill empathy and patriotism.
Moreover, student societies should be monitored but encouraged to flourish, serving as soft power tools against ideological manipulation and anarchist tendencies. Pakistani universities must not just produce degree-holders—they must produce conscious citizens ready to serve the state.
4. Strategic Research: Intellectual Backbone of National Security
Without rigorous and relevant research, academic patriotism becomes hollow. HEIs must prioritize research on themes related to national sovereignty, ideological security, hybrid warfare, counterterrorism, digital radicalization, and constitutional studies. Departments of international relations, political science, Islamic studies, and media studies, in particular, should lead the charge.
The state, in turn, must fund research projects that align with national priorities. Research grants and fellowships should be awarded not just for academic merit but for national significance. Academic journals should publish work on Pakistan’s geopolitical strategies, water conflicts, identity narratives, and development models. By doing so, our universities can offer intellectual resistance to anti-Pakistan propaganda and become policy shapers rather than policy spectators.
5. Media Literacy & Digital Defence
In today’s information age, the battlefield is digital. Misinformation, disinformation, and narrative warfare are as lethal as bombs and bullets. Universities must train students in media literacy and digital counter-narrative production. Departments of Mass Communication, Computer Science, and Islamic Studies should collaborate to teach students how to detect fake news, engage in informed discourse, and produce fact-based, culturally rooted digital content.
Social media training labs should be set up in universities to empower students to become digital ambassadors of Pakistan. These labs can serve a dual purpose: inoculating students against radicalization and preparing them to respond to online hostility, both foreign and domestic.
Importantly, student voices must be harnessed, not censored. With proper training, young voices can be turned into a powerful national chorus that echoes unity, hope, and resilience.
6. Policy Alignment & Institutional Autonomy
Finally, the role of state policy and educational governance cannot be ignored. The Higher Education Commission (HEC), provincial bodies, and education ministries must work together to create a national framework that incentivizes ideological education without compromising academic freedom.
This means funding universities not just on research output or employability metrics, but also on their role in promoting national cohesion, civic awareness, and Islamic values. A National Academic Integration Policy (NAIP) may be developed to ensure that all universities, whether public or private, contribute meaningfully to the national narrative.
At the same time, universities must be protected from politicization and bureaucratic interference. A delicate balance must be struck between oversight and autonomy, between national interest and academic freedom.
Conclusion: The Moral Compass of the Nation
Academia is not merely a repository of knowledge—it is the moral compass of the nation. In times of crisis, confusion, and conflict, universities must rise as sanctuaries of clarity and conviction. The current ideological and geopolitical challenges facing Pakistan demand that higher education institutions not remain neutral or indifferent; rather, our universities must become intellectually fortified, morally upright, and ideologically anchored. This means producing not just graduates but guardians of the national narrative; not just professionals but patriots; not just scholars but sentinels of peace and justice.
This is not an easy task. It requires courage, conviction, and coordination. But if Pakistan is to emerge stronger, more united, and more secure in the coming decades, then this academic front must be energized without delay. In this battle for hearts and minds, pens and ideas are our most powerful weapons—and universities our first line of defence.
About the Author
Prof. Dr. Taimoor ul Hassan is a senior academic and former Dean of Mass Communication. He specializes in media policy, ideological narratives, and academic reform in Pakistan.
