Over the past four years, Pakistan's higher-education budget has increased more than sevenfold, to about $449-million. While that amounts to only 0.5 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product, it is a big improvement from the days of barely enough to pay "measly salaries and basic bills." But for students, along with many of Pakistan's most respected academics, the influx of money has done little good. Instead, they say, the slapdash methods of the government's reform efforts have done more to widen the cracks in an already weak infrastructure than to lay the foundation for an educational renaissance. Students and professors alike are in fact worried because many critics say the flood of money has led to corruption, plagiarism, and favoritism. Some academics believe that what is called for is a radical transformation of the entire academic culture in Pakistan.