PAKISTAN`S higher education landscape has expanded dramatically over the last two decades. Yet, beneath this quantitative growth lies a disturbing academic hollowness, particularly in the realm of social sciences. Degrees are awarded in droves, but graduates often lack the intellectual rigour, critical thinking and practical skills that are essential for navigating, let alone contributing to, a rapidly evolving world.

This paradoxofquantity over quality reveals a silent crisis at the heart of our higher education system, which continues to educate without enlightening.

The core of this crisis lies in ineffective teaching methodologies, outdated curricula, and a widening gap between theory and practice.

In disciplines such as Political Science, International Relations, Sociology and Gender Studies, classrooms are often reduced to passive lectures,recycled notes and rote memorisation. Research, dialogue, debate and inquiry remain largely missing.

The situation is compounded by poor writing skills among students. A recent Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) report highlighted that many university graduates, including those from the social sciences, struggle with basic English expression and analytical reasoning. This is because university assignments often lack coherence, critical engagement and originality; symptoms of an education system that neither nurtures nor expects academic excellence.

The assessment system is equally flawed.

Exams reward memorisation over understanding, while term papers are seldom scrutinised for quality or plagiarism.

There is little constructive feedback or encouragement for independent thinking.

Moreover, weak research skills, outdated methodologies, and a general lack of academic curiosity further undermine the learning process. As a result, students progress through the system without ever learning how to think critically, conductmeaningful research, or write effectively.

Worse still, the gap between classroom theory and real-world application continues to widen, with internships, fieldwork and research-based learning either absent or poorly implemented. The result is a generation ofsocialscience graduates who are ill-equipped to adapt to an era of rapid technological, political and social transformation.

Behind this academic decay lies the troubling reality; many faculty members are either underqualified or lack genuine interest in teaching. In several universities, hiring practices are generally driven more by favouritism than by merit. Visiting lecturers, often recruited on an ad hoc basis and poorly compensated, tend to lack both commitment and accountability.

Meanwhile, permanent faculty members face minimal institutional pressure to improve their teaching methods, or to engage in meaningful research.

To reverse this decline, universities in Pakistan must urgently revise curricula, introduce active learning strategies, and prioritise research-based education.

Teacher training, academic accountability, and student-centred learning are no longer optional; they are essential.

Socialsciences,by theirverynature, are meant to equip students to understand and shape society. But when classrooms become graveyards of ideas, the future of the nation`s intellectual and democratic development is put at risk.

It is time to move beyond the illusion of academic expansion, and confront the harsh reality of intellectual decline.

Zakir Ullah Mardan