THE MAO College mass communication department is one of the many public-sector departments, which is working without a regular faculty. The department imparts education to more than 300 students pursuing master’s in mass communication (morning and evening shifts) as well as BS (Honours), a recently-launched initiative.
The Punjab University has warned the department of withdrawal of affiliation if at least six regular faculty members including a PhD and two MPhil degree-holders are not inducted at the earliest.
College Principal Prof Dr Farhan Ebadat Yar Khan says he had moved a requisition to the Punjab Higher Education Department to create six regular faculty member posts and appoint qualified academics.
With the launch of the BS (Honours) programme, he said, the college would not admit students to the MA mass communication programme in the morning shift alone.
Established in 2004 on grant of an NOC by the Higher Education Department and affiliation by the Punjab University, the department has been running on a no-profit-no-loss basis. It was being run by faculty hired from within and outside the college, including senior journalists and teachers, until recently.
The teachers say they are being given remunerations at the rate of Rs500 per lecture and earlier there was a proposal to double the amount. However, the appointment of new college principal has led to an impasse as the incumbent says the college lacks funds to pay even Rs500 per lecture.
There was a hue and cry when the college administration offered all faculty members a remuneration of Rs15,000 per month across the board with a condition of taking a minimum of four periods a day spread in two shifts from morning to evening. The only person to go was head of the department, Rana Latif Athar who refused to work against such a meagre salary. The college students protested the ‘removal’ of the head of the department.
Prof Khan admits it is highly insufficient salary but the college is supposed to stay within its means. Though there are claims that the college earns Rs1.8 million from evening students and the salary expenditure is not more than Rs0.5 million, the principal says people do not count other expenditure like logistics, library and others.
Answering a question, the principal admitted that a senior political science teacher had been given the charge to look after the administrative matters of the department. A faculty member, who accepted the paltry salary package, had been made academic in charge. Currently, two journalists and four college graduates are serving as faculty members.
A political science department teacher is also taking national and international affairs class at the mass communication department.
Prof Khan said the situation at the department would improve as he expected that the Higher Education Department would create posts and appoint regular faculty members with the beginning of next academic session in September.
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THE first graduating class of the Department of Biology at the LUMS School of Science and Engineering (SSE) is realising its promise, with four students already earning offers for the fully-funded direct admissions into PhD programmes at some of the top universities in the world.
According to a Higher Education Commission spokesperson, Kamil Ahsan, Syeda Nayab Fatima Abidi, Anum Khan and Saman Hussain have fully-funded PhD scholarship offers from top universities of the world including Oxford University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Duke University, New York University and Dartmouth University.
Saman Hussain has scooped up PhD offers in bio-physics from Oxford, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania. Kamil Ahsan, who aspires to pursue his PhD in Evolutionary Development, has multiple options on the table to opt out from, which include offers from University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Duke University and New York University.
Nayyab Abidi has received her PhD nod in Neuroscience from University of Illinois and Urbana Champaign whereas Anum Khan has an offer from Dartmouth University.
The scholarship-winning students say they had received tremendous support and encouragement from the biology department, SSE and LUMS.
Ahsan said they received “a lot of help from all their professors especially from Dr Muhammad Tariq, Dr Suhail Qureshi and Dr Shahid Khan.” He said his teachers gave them individual attention, which helped them reach their final decision about their respective areas of specialisation.”
Biology Department chairman Dr Muhammad Tariq says he is excited about his students’ success. “They have made us all very proud,” he added.
LUMS Vice-Chancellor Dr Adil Najam says, “I am delighted at the commendable achievements of these students who proved to be another link of the chain of successes coming from other departments at SSE. This news is just one validation of the vision and aspirations with which LUMS and SSE was originally set up.”
The HEC spokesperson says this is a real paradigm shift occurring in the educational landscape of Pakistan. She said the HEC vision had a major role in all this because an environment was created that brought qualified faculty back home from abroad to serve in higher education institutions in the country. — mansoormalik173@hotmail.com
