LAHORE, Pakistan: So far, more thar 17,000 students from different areas of the Country have graduated from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
It was told to President Dr. Arif Alvi when he paid a visit to LUMS in Lahore on Friday.
During his visit, the president was briefed by the LUMS leadership about its strategic priorities, future development plans, issues in Pakistan’s higher education sector, and LUMS’ contributions towards providing quality higher education in Pakistan.
It was informed that LUMS plans to increase the volume of online course content to 25 percent, and that the University has contributed towards policymaking in the Country, especially in the Energy Sector.
It was also stated that the University is actively engaged in collaborations with the government and the industry to focus on the issues of socio-economic development being faced by the Country.
President Arif Alvi appreciated LUMS for providing quality higher education and fulfilling the Country’s needs for educated and skilled professionals, adding that Pakistan needs more iconic higher education institutions.
The president called upon the universities and institutes of higher learnings to create meaningful and practical linkages with local as well as renowned and credible International universities to benchmark their best practices, learn from their experiences, innovation and creativity, update their curricula, teaching modules and materials to remain abreast with the improvements and developments perpetually taking place in field of education, higher learning and research and development around the world.
During his visit, President Arif Alvi also chaired a meeting of the LUMS Advisory Board, and met with leadership of LUMS.
The Pro-Chancellor LUMS Abdul Razak Dawood, the Rector LUMS Shahid Hussain, the Vice-Chancellor LUMS Dr Arshad Ahmad, Members of the Board of Trustees of LUMS, and Senior Leadership of the University attended the meeting.
During his meeting with the LUMS advisory board, the president urged the policy and decision-makers, regulatory bodies, and bureaucracy to overcome their traditional resistance and inertia against innovation and development, and make quick and timely decisions and ensure speedy and timebound implementation to help Pakistan become a modern and progressive Country.
The president advised the University to continuously scan the international educational horizon to identify the new and emerging technologies developed and employed around the world and link them with their curricula to create quality graduates equipped with markable skills and capable of coping with the challenges of the modern world as well as harness the opportunities available in the country and abroad.
President Arif Alvi said that innovations and improvements in the ICT sector have caused an explosion of knowledge and abundance of information which is available to everyone with the touch of a button on smart devices.
The president underscored that universities should enable their students to work hard to become proficient in their skills, create new knowledge and skills, and with sound judgement, critical and analytical thinking skills strengthen their niche in the competitive world.
The president urged the University to employ out of the box solutions including combination of brick and mortar, hybrid and online teaching capabilities to increase their capacity and reach to all those FSC-passed students in such a manner that none of the F.SC passed inspiring students for higher education are refused admission on any pretext or reason.
Dr. Arif Alvi emphasized that online and hybrid education is easier, accessible, cheaper, and conveniently scalable and provides convenient and hassle-free mode of teaching to a much larger body of student without constraint of time and space and when this mode is combined with “open access knowledge and information” it becomes even more productive.
The president asserted that research carried out by the Developed Countries especially during COVID-19 lockdown has proved that online and hybrid modes of education are successful without compromising the integrity of the education discipline and quality and proficiency of the graduating students.
The president added that many universities even in the United States are increasingly offering online courses which has reached to 50 percent of total courses with much lesser cost.
In addition, he advised the universities to impart education to the students by short courses without comprising their quality to make them available for industries, businesses and services sector which are anxiously looking for trained and proficient human resource.
Arif Alvi asserted that the IT Sector the world over is now recruiting employees not only on the basis of their degrees but more so basing upon their skills and ability to deliver the required products or services.
