Identity crisis is one of the most common of national dilemmas in the 21st century as youth of the world become more and more lost in the battle between Western and Eastern. Thankfully we have a rich history to get inspired from, writes Haleema Khalid as she places her bets on histro-tainment.
By Staff Reporter
#LUMS, remained Friday’s top trend on twitter after a student shared his experience of bullying by his peers, and staff of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) based on his social class highlighting how class difference is dividing the society.
Muhammad Umar Habib, a former student of LUMS, who was admitted to the varsity in LUMS National Outreach Programme (NOP) shared his ordeal at the university where he shared how he was treated with contempt because of his rural background. He began with his first experience on the very first day at LUMS.
Being an NOP at LUMS wasn't that easy.
I was told by warden on my very first day at LUMS that I deserve to live in a "Jhuggi" (hut). 1/6
— Umar Habib (@umerhabeeb) December 12, 2019
He also narrated how other students were treated based on their social class at the university and how it affected them.
Many social media users came out in support of the student and called out LUMS for the discrimination happening at their campus.
One user wrote:
https://twitter.com/aishaismad/status/1205398152288886784
Another user reminded him about the society’s responsibility to its youth
You are a brave & brilliant young man. You faced these difficulties with resilience & came out successful. Wish you God speed.
And, NOP scholarship wasn’t a favour to U. You earned your place on merit & it’s Society’s obligation to provide opportunities to brilliant youth like u— Musadaq Zulqarnain (@MusadaqZ) December 13, 2019
One user pointed out the university’s responsibility to not disclose which students were studying there on NOP.
On first instance, why even LUMS administration has to disclose your NOP status? Aren’t they supposed to do this in discrete manner to provide equal access to all students to their program?
— Stay safe (@AudiA3_1800) December 13, 2019
The lack of diversity at campuses in universities was also pointed out and why it was needed in Pakistan.
NOP is a good step of LUMS. But our universities need to focus on diversity and inclusion training of faculty/staff/students. It is a continuous effort.
— Naveed Iftikhar (@navift) December 13, 2019
A LUMS teacher also applauded the former student of the varsity and highlighted the need for the university administration to take the matter seriously.
Classism runs deep in elite spaces in Pakistan, & LUMS is no exception. Thanks for being brave enough to write this & sorry you faced so much discrimination. Hope the institution takes such criticisms seriously & takes measures to deal with this endemic problem.
— Nida Kirmani (@NidaKirmani) December 13, 2019
Journalist Umar Cheema said that he was proud of his roots and being a “paindoo”
Thread on discrimination at LUMS against "paindoo" students. The difference b/w cities and villages is of opportunities, not that folks grown up in rural areas are less talented. I'm a proud paindoo. https://t.co/dIjs3jbaEi
— Umar Cheema (@UmarCheema1) December 13, 2019
Nuzhat Siddiqi also pointed out the responsibility of the LUMS administration and how it needed to be taken seriously
https://twitter.com/guldaar/status/1205356344674529280?s=19
Bullying in Pakistan is not talked about, especially at educational institutions where it is an increasing phenomenon.
https://clone.academiamag.com/bullying-in-pakistan/
A 14 member’s delegation comprising of student societies office bearers and representatives from six leading universities of the Punjab and Sindh would pay a one-week exploratory visit to Karachi from August 1-6, 2019. The delegation will include students from Islamia University Bahawalpur, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, the Punjab University Lahore, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture Multan, University of Education Lahore and Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur. The main purpose of the visit is to provide a platform to the university students for knowledge, experience and expertise sharing aimed at strengthening campus-based student societies.
Usman Institute of Technology (UIT) student’s project ‘Chai Ki Dukaan’, has been selected to be presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum in New York. Ramsha Baluch, who is also the team lead, student affairs at Usman Institute of Technology, and co-founder of Chai Ki Dukaan, has succeeded in winning a spot as a finalist of the Voices of SDG16+: Stories for Global Action campaign. The joint project by UIT student aims to target Sustainable Development Goals #16, by providing young Pakistanis and Indians a platform to share, discuss and interact.
Two Pakistani activist brothers Umair Asif and Ali Asif have been nominated for 120 under 40: Next Generation of Family Planning Leaders Awards by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. Both Old Ravians have been advocating youth on SRHR and Family Planning issues since 2010.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) evaluation committee has suggested the suspension of 34 MPhil/MS and PhD programmes taught at Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) after coming across “enormous level of deficiencies”.
According to documents, a seven-member HEC review committee headed by Shah Abdul Latif University Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Yousuf Khushk accessed a total of 73 MPhil/MS and PhD degree programmes out of which eight programmes were suggested to be halted completely, while 26 others were given the status of “stopping further intake”.
Other members of the review committee included Dr Adnan Sarwar Khan from the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Dr Bushra Mirza from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Dr Farman Ullah from Agriculture University, Peshawar, Dr Farooq e Azam Cheema from Bahria University, Karachi, Dr Muhammad Ramzan from University of Central Punjab, Lahore, and Muhammad Ali Baig from HEC.
The halted MPhil/MS degree programmes included history, Islamic studies and Pakistan studies. Similarly, 17 MPhil/MS degree for which further admissions were halted included applied psychology, biotechnology, botany, chemistry, computer science, computer system engineering, economics, English literature, English linguistics, Islamic studies, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacy practice, Urdu, Iqbaliat, wildlife and zoology.
Moreover, further intake was stopped for PhD degree programmes in disciplines including Arabic, botany, computer science, Islamic studies, mathematics, media sciences, pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmaceutics. Similarly, the committee recommended complete suspension of PhD programmes in biochemistry, history, Islamic studies, Pakistan studies and pharmacology.
According to the report compiled by the committee, majority of the halted programmes had a shortage of specialised faculty members, while those who were performing their duties lacked experience. The committee also suggested halting further intake on excessive student enrolment grounds.
As per the HEC rules, the appointment of at least three full-time relevant PhD faculty members was compulsory to launch a PhD programme and at least two full-time relevant PhD holders for launching an MPhil/MS/equivalent programme. Surprisingly, despite more than a few pointed loopholes, the IUB has announced admission intake for the new semester.
According to the committee report, IUB had 35 PhD programmes with an enrolment of 846 PhD students, while there were 48 MPhil/MS/Equivalent programmes with enrolment of 1,983 students. For these academic programmes, the IUB had 230 PhD qualified faculty members and 52 MPhil/MS/equivalent faculty members.
The committee in the report suggested the university to immediately cancel fresh admissions in the halted programmes and fee must be returned to all the students affected by this action. However, according to sources, the varsity has failed in complying with the committee recommendations yet.
The committee also recommended that the HEC library usage should be encouraged by organising orientation seminars for teachers and students and an entry test/admission committee at the university level must be formulated with intimation to the HEC, as per the HEC guidelines.
According to IUB spokesperson Shahzad Ahmed Khalid, the internal committees of the varsity were working to mend the loophole pinpointed by the committee. “We have recently advertised over 100 vacancies to meet faculty shortage. The university will definitely fulfill deficiencies in pointed departments and then announce admissions.”
DR ISHRAT HUSAIN THE MAN WHO TURNED IBA AROUND
IBA has always been the top business school in Pakistan, but got pushed to the back of the pack due to lack of infrastructure and administrative red tape. That was until Dr Ishrat Husain took its reins. We find out how he went about the herculean task.
he primary problem was that not even a single classroom, laboratory or hostel room was constructed since 1965, a time when US Aid left the country. The enrollment at that point escalated from two hundred students to two thousand students. Even the faculty members did not have a lab where they could sit and research, or prepare their lessons or even engage with students during the office hours. Provision of these facilities is the major pillar of an academic institution. I was aware that I could not attract top-notch faculty members to IBA until I provide them with the physical infrastructure and facilities so that they can feel comfortable. EvenI think no country in the world can make progress unless and until they pay attention to the higher education because this helps in producing leaders for every particular field in the country the students were living in very bad conditions and the laboratories were outdated, classrooms were not of the way that you could bring in the modern delivery mechanisms of methodological tools. For instance there were was no IT in the whole campus.
In the present times, you need different technological innovations and hence my strategy had four aspects or dimensions; firstly I wanted to invest in the physical infrastructure so that we could overcome the difficulties but also plan developments that could satisfy the future needs. Hence I worked and secured 5 billion rupees for the private sector and completed 30 projects of academic block, offices and these initiatives were just not to satisfy the present needs but also the future needs. The building has been constructed on modern lines and hence you can accommodate new students easily. Also, we have 130 offices for 100 teachers in order to accommodate any new hiring’s. The second aspect of my strategy was faculty development and we started hiring Ph. D. Faculty members, as we had only a few PHD’S back then. At the present time, you cannot just hire MBA’S to teach your students as they are much smarter than the teacher these days. You need to bring teachers who have made some name or contributions and hence we started hiring faculty members with PHD’S and today with the grace of Almighty we have 64 Ph.D.’s and almost 20 among them are enrolled under the Ph.D. split programmes for women teachers or they are doing their study abroad and the time when they come back at least 85 percent of them will be holding Ph.D. degrees and that is the hallmark of a global institution. The third aspect was a technological up gradation. We wanted to have enterprise resource planning and campus planning solutions. Now teachers give assignments to students electronically, the registrations are done electronically and the tests are also completed and submitted electronically. The fourth aspect was to bring new programs because Karachi needed education in the field of Social sciences, Accounting, Finance, Mathematics and Economics, as they were lacking.
IBA was just a business school with some Computer Science faculty members. There was a need for new disciplines and hence our graduate and undergraduate program in the fields of Social science, Accounting, Finance and Mathematics were introduced and today we have 4000 students in these departments. These were the four strategic objectives that I achieved by the grace of Allah Almighty in five years’ time frame. I later decided that it is now the right time to let others come because an institution should not depend on one individual and that is why I decided to retire.You said IBA had no faculty up- gradation mechanisms since the 1960s. Why do you think that happened? Do you think it was because of the administrative structure?I don’t want to second-guess their (past administrators) performance and would like to salute the efforts of the previous administration. When I joined IBA I found solutions to the problems instead of cracking out what happened in the past. I was looking only at the period where I had the opportunity to place things rightly. So I don’t care about the problems they were facing and what their considerations were back then.In the past, obsolete administrative mechanisms were in place that often disregarded students. Do you find it to be the case now?
M Azam Mahmood Butt has an MBA from IBA and is the editor for Academia Magazine. He has previously been part of the English language news media industry, and also worked in the retail and real estate sectors. He can be reached at editor@academiamag.com.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa on Monday, observed that the aim of the Supreme Court’s decision to impose private schools fee rise cap was to curb corruption.
Punjab education authorities stopped their officials from taking actions against the schools who have submitted their applications for registration, while the district education heads have been asked to fast-track the registration processes of private schools across the province.
Establishment of a High-tech and state-of-the-art university in DG Khan named Mir Chakkar Khan Rind University of Technology is indeed a valuable gift by the government of Punjab to the people of Southern Punjab, has said by the provincial minister for industries and trade, Mian Aslam Iqbal. He expressed these views while talking to the media outside Punjab Assembly, today.