t a time when higher education is increasingly being shaped by market forces and the cost of quality education continues to rise, the emergence of Daanish University of Applied and Emerging Sciences represents a welcome and potentially transformative intervention by the state. Its significance lies not merely in the construction of another university, but in the ambition to create a national institution dedicated to excellence in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and related disciplines—fields that will determine the economic, scientific and technological destiny of Pakistan in the decades ahead.

The proposed university comes at a particularly important moment. Pakistan has a vast reservoir of young people but access to high-quality higher education remains uneven. The best educational opportunities are often concentrated in a handful of institutions and major urban centres. Talented students from less developed and remote areas can find it difficult to translate their ability into academic and professional achievement. Daanish University seeks to address this imbalance by making merit, rather than geography or financial means, the principal gateway to opportunity.

The decision to invest in such an institution is therefore significant. The university has been conceived as a national centre for applied sciences, innovation and technology, with an emphasis on producing graduates equipped for the jobs and technologies of the future.

This is an especially welcome direction at a time when the financing and provision of higher education are increasingly exposed to commercial considerations. Private universities have undoubtedly expanded access and introduced competition into the sector, but higher education cannot be viewed solely as a commodity. Science and technology education, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, space sciences and advanced engineering, is a national investment. It creates knowledge, develops technological capability and strengthens a country’s capacity to compete in the global economy.

Daanish University can become an important expression of the state’s responsibility to invest in knowledge as a public good. The most promising aspect of the Daanish vision is its emphasis on identifying talent wherever it exists in the country. Pakistan’s intellectual potential is not confined to its major cities. Brilliant students can be found in villages, small towns, remote districts and economically disadvantaged communities. What many of them lack is not ability but opportunity.

The university’s proposed nationwide outreach programme is intended to bridge this gap. Training camps are also envisaged to help deserving students prepare for the admission process. This approach can turn the university into more than a conventional campus. It can become a national talent-hunt and talent-development system.

The idea of actively looking for exceptional young minds has precedents in successful international education models. The proposed approach draws inspiration from Iran’s National Organisation for Development of Exceptional Talents, commonly known as NODET or SAMPAD and from the magnet-school tradition in the United States. NODET’s model is particularly relevant because it is designed to identify students with exceptional intellectual potential through selective assessment and place them in an environment specifically structured to develop that potential. Its selection system has historically emphasised intelligence, talent and creativity rather than prior academic knowledge. The lesson is important: exceptional talent should not have to wait to be discovered. Institutions must go looking for it.

Finding talented students, however, is only the first step. The real challenge is what happens afterwards. Daanish University has the opportunity to develop an intensive system of instruction in which exceptionally capable students are challenged to reach their full intellectual potential. The objective should not be merely to produce graduates who can pass examinations or secure conventional jobs. It should be to cultivate scientists, engineers, researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs and technology leaders capable of solving problems that matter to Pakistan and the wider world.

This requires a different academic culture—one based on inquiry rather than rote learning, experimentation rather than passive instruction, and problem-solving rather than the simple accumulation of information.

The university’s stated vision points in this direction. Daanish University is envisioned as a new national institution built around rigorous STEAM education, multidisciplinary learning, merit, inclusivity, integrity, inquiry and societal impact. Such a philosophy can create an environment in which engineering students work alongside computer scientists, biologists collaborate with data scientists and researchers in artificial intelligence engage with experts in robotics, materials science, medicine and space technology. The boundaries between disciplines are rapidly disappearing in the modern world. The university should prepare students not simply to master individual subjects but also to understand how various fields converge to create new technologies.

The importance of this mission cannot be overstated. Pakistan’s economic competitiveness will increasingly depend on its ability to move from being primarily a consumer of technology to becoming a creator of technology. The emphasis on applied research and stronger links between academia and industry is particularly important because Pakistan’s universities have long faced criticism for the distance between academic learning and practical economic needs.

Daanish University should become a place where research does not end with a thesis. Ideas should be transformed into prototypes, patents, start-ups, industrial applications and public solutions. Students should be encouraged to identify real problems—whether in agriculture, water management, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, climate resilience or digital services—and develop technological answers to them.

The university can also become a bridge between Pakistan and the international scientific community. The plans include engagement with international experts and institutions, as well as efforts to attract high-quality academic leadership and faculty. Perhaps the most compelling feature of the Daanish concept is the attempt to combine excellence with social inclusion. These objectives are sometimes treated as contradictory. They need not be.

A university can be exceptionally selective while remaining socially inclusive if its selection process identifies ability rather than wealth. A brilliant student from an affluent family and an equally brilliant student from an impoverished village should get the same starting line. That is the promise of a national outreach and merit-based selection system.

Daanish University’s challenge will be to ensure that this principle survives in practice. The selection mechanism must be transparent, scientifically designed and accessible to students from different educational backgrounds. Preparation opportunities must also be provided so that students from weaker schools are not disadvantaged simply because they have had fewer resources.

The experience of NODET and other selective educational systems demonstrates that identifying exceptional talent can have a multiplier effect when students are placed in demanding academic environments and supported by highly capable teachers. Daanish University has the opportunity to adapt that philosophy to Pakistan’s own circumstances rather than simply copying a foreign model.

Daanish University will ultimately be judged not by the grandeur of its buildings but by the quality of the minds it develops. Plans indicate that academic activities are expected to commence in 2027, with admissions on merit for students from across Pakistan and particular attention to underdeveloped regions.

That ambition deserves broad support. In an era in which countries compete not only for markets and resources but also for scientific talent, technological capabilities and intellectual leadership, Pakistan cannot afford to leave its brightest young people without opportunity. Nor can the country rely exclusively on private institutions to meet the enormous national requirement for advanced scientific and technological education.

Daanish University offers a different proposition: a state-backed institution that seeks to find talent across the country, bring that talent together, subject it to rigorous instruction, nurture curiosity and creativity and ultimately channel it towards engineering, science, technology and innovation.

Daanish University is not merely a new educational enterprise. It is a statement that higher education—especially advanced education in science, technology and engineering—remains a matter of national responsibility. At a time when educational opportunities are increasingly being shaped by the ability to pay, a serious state-led commitment to merit-based excellence and inclusion is not only welcome; it is necessary.

The writer is a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.