Published on, Aug. 30 -- August 30, 2025 1:12 AM

When I first stepped onto the campus of Rhodes College in the United States, I sensed immediately that education here meant something different. I was fortunate to arrive on a full merit scholarship, but the real privilege lay in the system itself. A liberal arts college does not exist merely to award degrees. It is designed to shape the mind, cultivate flexibility, and prepare students for citizenship and leadership. For a student from Pakistan, the contrast could not be starker.

Back home, universities are often built around a single goal: securing a credential. Lecture halls overflow, lectures flow only one way and the immediate ambition is to survive examinations. This structure may p...