Daily Times

Pakistan today has more mouths to feed, more families to house, more children to educate and more people looking for gainful employment with millions migrating from the countryside to major cities in search for jobs.

For those who are currently at leadership positions in Educational Institutions, understanding and taking ownership of your responsibilities is important as a leader. Do not pay lip service to the ‘softer’ people-focused activities that are required. Leaders must work to truly understand the responsibilities of those around them. They must give clear guidance to their team members including their role within the team, establish a code of conduct and the high scientific, personal and professional standards that are expected, and uphold these if they are broken. This enables independent action, as well as fostering a strong team ethos.

Leading by example from the top down, the bottom up, from side to side, more than a dozen vice chancellors appertaining to Punjab University have been appointed in Public/Private Universities of Pakistan. Similarly many PU officers have been appointed on key posts in national institutions which translate the success of quality leadership and professionalism in Punjab University’s Administrative conduct. Punjab University is playing the pivotal role among higher education institutes of Pakistan.

Punjab university had been digitalized and for the first time in Pakistan, proctor based online examinations were successfully taken. More than 2,00,000 thousand applicants applied for online admissions which speaks of the growing confidence among masses

Professor. Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar became vice-chancellor of the University of Punjab two years ago. Dr Niaz is a profound academician and has received Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the government of Pakistan.

In an interview, he outlined his vision for research, quality education and practical knowledge, and that how the university can make its mark on national and international levels “My main focus is on quality of the research being conducted at PU. I believe that quality matters more than quantity, so it is important that whatever work my students and Faculty are doing as part of their research should have a positive impact on the society. With this in mind, we have been working to promote authentic research and this is one of the reasons that our research quality has greatly improved within the last two years.” PU has rose up leaps and bounds during his tenure.

In conversation with Prof. Niaz Ahmed, he mentioned that due to several initiatives taken by the incumbent administration in all the disciplines of the university, PU had jumped 54 points in QS Asian Universities Ranking and the restructuring of the university would help improve PU’s international ranking further. Moreover, three new Faculties have been established. Faculty of Information Technology is one of these, which will composite of several departments related to Computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and software engineering, previously these departments were part of Punjab University College of Information technology.

Notably, PUCIT is one of the leading institutions in Pakistan. Every year, thousands of applicants apply to get admission but very few manage to make it due to high merit and deficient facilities.

However, by restructuring the resources and policies, we can allocate more resource to these departments, hence creating more opportunities for students and academia.

PU holds a role model status among all Pakistani educational institutions, due to the promotion of research culture 9 faculty members of Punjab University had been ranked among top 2 percent researchers of the world. The number of full professors could not exceed 70 but now PU has more than 150 professors who are contributing towards the development of the country and society in their relevant sectors.

According to Dr. Niaz, we focus on all aspects that are imperative to make PU the leading institute in the region. We are always striving to contribute to the country’s good in whatever way we can. At international level, we have started to collaborate with the topmost institutions of the world. Numerous MOUs have been signed with the globally leading organizations and institutions. In the current pandemic situation PU has established BSL 3 level laboratory and started corona tests to serve the people and help government cope with the disease. PU established Web TV, telemedicine centre and mental health helpline for creating awareness among the people and for mental rehabilitation of the society facing the pandemic. Futuristically, PU Administration is eyeing stone laying ceremony of Medical College at its premises in 2021.

Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital. Education enriches people’s understanding of themselves and world. It improves the quality of their lives and leads to broad social benefits to individuals and society. Education raises people’s productivity and creativity and promotes entrepreneurship and technological advances. In addition it plays a very crucial role in securing economic and social progress and improving income distribution. Recently, Punjab University’s cotton seed had been approved by the Government of Pakistan and soon it would be commercialized, which would boost the country’s agricultural economy. More so, another landmark achievement is the establishment of new research centres to transform the overall academic environment of the university which would help resolve socio-economic issues of the country and society. Punjab university had been digitalized and for the first time in Pakistan, proctor based online examinations were successfully taken.

More than 2,00,000 thousand applicants applied for online admissions which speaks of the growing confidence among masses.
Our Government, Ministry of Education, Higher Education officials and as a society we need to give more credit and credentialing to technical and vocational training. I greatly admire the German system where that kind of training is called a profession and is honored and respected, not seen as second class.

PU which is leading from the front among all national institutions, should invest more into technical education and more resources should be given to flourish technical departments and centers.