Daily Times

I have had the pleasure and privilege to work with Dr Sabiha Mansoor during these four years. She is a visionary leader, the kind Pakistani universities — especially resource-starved public universities — need more of. I live in Washington but my heart remains in Lahore. So, when I read the appeal by Hiba Hassan, the head girl at the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), I was surprised to learn that consideration is being given towards bringing in a new Vice Chancellor (VC) to the LCWU.
In my many decades of work with the World Bank I have had the opportunity to work in many countries on educational and institutional reforms and would like to share some lessons that may be relevant for the current situation at the LCWU. Hiba Hassan’s question to the Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, “Why, we ask,” says it in a way that touches the heart. She has poured her heart out. She speaks for the LCWU’s student body but she is also sharing the views of the faculty and the staff. I have been there often and have talked and worked with the faculty and students. The love and affection they have for their VC was palpable. Dr Sabiha came with a vision for the LCWU. On arrival she worked with the faculty, staff and students to develop a shared vision. This is a LCWU-owned vision, which is being implemented in a democratic fashion.
Having a shared vision is a first and necessary requirement for inspiring leadership. Dr Sabiha began with that. She was no longer an outsider; she became one of them. What was her job? It was the job of a 21st century VC anywhere in the world: to face and overcome a multitude of challenges in initiating and continuing the renewal of a dynamic organisation. The VC has to attract and retain top quality faculty, staff and students, has to seek learning technologies and embrace those appropriate for the university culture and its state of evolution, to meet increasing demands from its stakeholders and to keep them satisfied and happy, seek new and diverse sources of funds and create links with new partners locally and internationally — all of that while doing the job of a manager.
An environment with challenges like the above requires leaders who thrive on managing a changing landscape. I use the word leader and not manager to distinguish between the evolved differences of these two necessary functions. A manager focuses on structuring goals, tasks and roles to arrive at a given destination. The leader focuses on choosing the direction and the destination, and deals with the external environment in which the university operates. Both of these functions are necessary. Visionary leaders can do both. That is not the case with all leaders: some leaders prefer to pass on the mundane to a trusted ally and the team then delivers. That is the typical situation because visionary leaders are few and far between. Dr Mansoor is a visionary leader who continues to do the joint task of leadership and mundane management. That makes her exceptional for any situation requiring transformational change. When she arrived at the LCWU, it did need transformational change. She has accomplished much, creating an environment at the LCWU in which innovation flourishes, learning is promoted and the citizens of tomorrow are created. In this case, these citizens are girls whose injection into the Pakistani workforce and management structure can change the growth prospects of Pakistan itself. This level of leadership is needed in all Pakistani universities, especially for women.
In the 2014 Higher Education Commission’s (HEC’s) ranking, the LCWU was at the top of “all women’s” universities in Pakistan. It is ahead of Fatima Jinnah University (Rawalpindi) and Kinnaird College for Women University (Lahore). That is impressive progress because four years ago the LCWU was not academically visible. This is impressive but the LCWU is still not in the top 10 universities of Pakistan and is still distant from its international ambition of being in the top 100 universities of the world. The LCWU, for Pakistan’s honour, should be helped to go where no other Pakistani women’s university has attempted to go before: the top 100.
Here, I would like to mention five major accomplishments by the LCWU that has helped it get to the top of the women’s university league.
Through internationalisation it created links with the world via student and faculty exchanges with regional and global centres of excellence. It managed to persuade the British Council to locate its International Resource Centre (IRC) in the LCWU campus. This is a gift to the educational landscape of Punjab and the IRC has played a critical role in upgrading faculty, improving pedagogy, linking students to the community and thus enabling them to become good citizens.
International collaborations have strengthened the faculty. The LCWU has set up exchange and twinning relationships with 10 reputed universities located in the US, UK, Australia and the Far East. This is farsighted in that the LCWU faculty is being exposed to four different systems of education. That enriches the university faculty more than a single country’s relationship would have.
The LCWU has been empowering women. This is the need of Pakistan and the world. For this task Dr Sabiha created the Institute of Learning and Leadership to teach, support and introduce LCWU graduates to the world of work. This institute has been formally linked to George Washington University in Washington.
With research grant expansion and through links with multiple sources, the LCWU’s access to research grants has been significantly improved and the university has become a place where discussion and learning thrive. Research output has expanded as a result. It may be noted that the LCWU is among the few universities in Pakistan that offer high class education in natural sciences, liberal arts, languages, business and social sciences, and has the faculty to support this so that LCWU students are sought after graduates.
Student development has always been the primary purpose of any educational institution. The LCWU expanded its physical infrastructure (classrooms, libraries, laboratories and discussion rooms) by seeking funds from the HEC, planning commission and bilateral/ multilateral donors to make the university a safe and comfortable environment, which is a key requirement for Pakistani girls and their parents.
This list of integrated growth inducing actions is just the tip of the iceberg of changes made. The learning environment at the LCWU is now exciting, a robust indicator of a research university. But much remains to be done because Pakistani girls have to feel and act empowered.
For these nationally important tasks it is important that the political leadership consider the pros and cons of leadership change at the LCWU. The current VC has proved to be a visionary leader, is full of energy and enthusiasm but much remains to be done. The students and faculty want her to stay, the other women universities can benefit from the methods tried and tested at the LCWU, and the country needs more women to lead us to a status where our Human Development Index and Gender Equality Index reach the top 50, not remain at number 140.
Dr Sabiha has much to give to the LCWU, to our girls, to Punjab and to Pakistan. I also want to join Hiba to ask the CM the same question: “Why now? Why at all?”

The writer is a former senior adviser at the World Bank