MOCKERY OF ACADEMIA

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم

اللھم صل علی محمد و ال محمد

Forman Christian College, Lahore

On July 3 2020 CE, Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy tendered his formal resignation at Forman Christian College where he had been teaching since the last eight years. It's not the first time Hoodbhoy was forced to resign from a prestigious educational institute. Serving physics at UET, QAU and LUMS, he'd joined FCC in 2012 CE as Distinguished Professor of Physics and Mathematics. Some controversies arose probably during the coronavirus pandemic and Hoodbhoy - the MIT-educated physicist and activist who will turn 70 this year on July 11 - had his contract reduced to one year from three years (non-renewable). In an email sent to his numerous correspondents including yours truly, Hoodbhoy revealed some quite disturbing news regarding how the academic atmosphere in FCC had deteriorated and the professors there weren't paying that much attention towards digital education. You can read some articles written by actual journalists with whom Hoodbhoy has communicated. Here's a fantastic piece by Tribune and a less detailed work by Technology Times. A complete version of the letter typed by Hoodbhoy is available at this website.

Hoodbhoy speaking to a meeting held in memory of Stephen Hawking (2018)

I had been tried and sentenced in absentia without a chance given to defend myself.

In his email addressed to Sameen McAuley, the Senior Human Resources Manager at FCC, Hoodbhoy begins by stating that his contract duration has been reduced from the usual three years to a single year and is further specified as non-renewable. It was probably a warning sign displaying the displeasure of the college administration. But then the distinguished professor proceeds to declare he accepts the above-mentioned contract while recording his protest with his resignation to take effect 120 days from yesterday. It means that, if this letter of resignation is accepted by the college administration (and we will hopefully hear some news on Monday), Hoodbhoy will vacate his office and his on-campus residence in the month of November. Then the physicist proceeds to explain the reasons behind his resignation (an action I'm inclined to call forced) which he divides into six portions. Let me just give you a summary of these 6 reasons.

Reasons why Hoodbhoy resigned:

First reason: The Rector informed him that the Academic Standards Committee had recommended against his continuation. Hoodbhoy requested him to form a review committee and allow him a chance to defend his credentials and performance but this request was denied by the Rector. 

Second Reason: He was denied the respect he deserved as a professor. He was treated whimsically and arbitrarily. FCC administration has violated the principles of fair-play and transparency therefore this college is spirally into the abyss of academic degeneration. 

Third Reason: The administration was unappreciative of his efforts to uplift the intellectual environment at FCC by helping students and teachers who wished to improve themselves.

When requested by a former physics chairman, and by FCC students hoping to study in the United States, I conducted GRE physics coaching classes in the evenings.

Fourth Reason: He was asked to teach 7 courses in the academic year 2020-21 when, according to the 2013 contract, he's only required to teach 3 courses per year. Hoodbhoy attached this image of the formal contract in his email which I'm taking the liberty to disclose. Did you know he also taught a course of sociology at FCC, a subject he wasn't asked yet he introduced? By the way, if he's accepting this contract but also resigning in four months, isn't he somehow violating the contract?

Formal offer letter (2013)

Fifth Reason: The Academic Standards Committee's decision that he doesn't meet the college's academic requirements is a mockery of justice as Hoodbhoy's credentials speak of his credibility. He received his PhD from MIT in nuclear physics in 1978 CE (when he was 28 years old). He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington (Seattle) in 1981 CE, served as a visiting professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in 1985 CE, and had summer appointments at CERN and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. You can read a full CV of this great physicist here.

Sixth Reason: The administration is soliciting and promoting academic mediocrity. The current Rector - Dr. Peter Armacost - is accused of converting campus garden into a shadi hall and other pompous stuff like that.

Academic corruption in FCC:

By the way, the current Rector will soon be replaced by Jonathan Addleton who will move to Pakistan in August with his dear wife Fiona and will take charge as Rector in November (the same month Hoodbhoy is supposed to leave FCC). When the coronavirus pandemic survived for a few months and the educational institutes of Pakistan decided to revive the process of teaching via DL (distance learning), Hoodbhoy, though being a strong proponent of digital education, was apprehensive of the problems associated with such measures. So, he proposed something to the Rector. "My proposal for controlling abuse was simple: require that each teacher deposits his/her weekly teaching materials at a central electronic repository at FCC so that any student or teacher can see the contents of a particular course".

But Hoodbhoy was chagrined after seeing his suggestion getting ignored and brushed aside. His worst fears came true when some of his students informed that they were receiving worthless learning material from their teachers. In his email, Hoodbhoy mentions two of his colleagues by name who, he claims, are being investigated for corruption. The first one is Dr. Hassan Amir Shah, an ex-GCU VC, who joined FCC last year. The other one is Dr. Sufian Aslam whom Hoodbhoy belittles as a person unknown to the world of science. I don't possess enough experience to mock Dr. Aslam in such manner but I do think that if you have done your masters from the Sofia University and PhD from the Moscow State University then you will be ridiculed by an MIT-trained physicist. The MSU ranked 87th in Academic Ranking of World Universities 2019. Remember that MIT was the 4th highest ranking educational institute that year. As per Pervez Hoodbhoy, these two professors are known to be close confidants of the Rector.

Now, as for the academic corruption of these honorable gentlemen, Hoodbhoy claims: "Faced with the challenge of e-lectures, Dr. Hassan Amir Shah simply took smartphone snaps of decades old, hastily scrawled hand-written lecture notes". Hoodbhoy claims he received these screenshots and found them to be yellowed pages with 1975 scribbled on the first one. Hoodbhoy's pleas to the Rector to do something about this situation went unheard and ignored. Then the physicist wrote this column on Dawn to expose the academic fraud that was being displayed in FCC. In his article, he lamented the academic downfall of the top Pakistani universities, the incompetence of these institutions' alumni to innovate or even express themselves in grammatically correct Urdu/English, the lack of ability of problem-solving and imagination in our professors, and the desperation of our rich parents to hire reputed O- and A-level tutors for their dull-minded children.

Forget for now some five to six high end private, high-priced universities. All else is a dull grey sea of mediocrity where the level of academic incompetence is mind-boggling.

Hoodbhoy didn't mention FCC in his article but I think it's fair to say, being a professor at Forman Christian College, if you'll talk about academic mediocrity and declare that only Khan Academy has some quality material for distance learning, people will quickly assume you're also unhappy with your own employers. Nevertheless, his Dawn column resulted in an hour-long televised discussion between him and the Rector. From that day in April, 2020 CE, Hoodbhoy became a persona non grata for the college administration.

I am being punished for being a whistle-blower.

In the end, he pays his respect to the Pakistani Christian community who have always stood by him. He affectionately remembers his days at Karachi Grammar School where he was tutored by Christians. The email concludes with a warning that any attempt to hurt him financially will be met with full legal force because some highly-qualified lawyers have contacted him and offered to take his case pro-bono.

Conclusion

Eqbal Ahmad (1933-1999) was a Pakistani political scientist.

Although he is one of the most distinguished physicists in Pakistan, many Pakistanis hate him. They think of him as an Islam-hating, anti-Pakistan, secular-minded atheist who wants to convert this country into a godless place. I really find it annoying when people say stuff like: He's a physicist and supposed to be doing research on physics but all we see him doing is just discussing politics and religion. Dude, he also teaches political science and sociology at FCC. Why do you think he's never done any research in physics? Are you retarded or something? Just go to his Wikipedia page and read about some of his research papers. He's done more research than your average science professor. He has published quality lectures on physics for people to read. These lectures are available on YouTube such as this one. The job of a physicist is to teach physics and do some research. Hoodbhoy does both these jobs. For example, in 2006 CE, Hoodbhoy published a paper on Generalized Parton Distribution. I know that some of his views seem exaggerated and biased. He has negative opinion of Jinnah and Iqbal. He believes that Pakistan is a confused state and wasn't founded on a well-defined principle. He thinks Iqbal was an idiot because he wrote nonsense about Einstein's Theory of Relativity in his Reconstruction. But he is an academic genius and firing a guy for pointing out apparent absurdities of our distinguished professors and obvious flaws in our education system is just another act of denial by this ignorance-infested nation.