LAHORE, Aug 2: Punjab Governor/Chancellor Khalid Maqbool has approved seven disciplines' curricula finalized by respective Inter-University Faculty Boards (IUFBs) at a marathon seven-hour meeting at the Governor's House on Monday.
The approval was granted to the revised degree and postgraduate level curricula of law, pharmacy, mass communication, information technology, administrative sciences, sports sciences and social work.
The Punjab University was the lead university, which was entrusted the task to revise the curricula of all these seven disciplines. It may be mentioned that the IUFBs in almost all subjects have revised and finalized the curricula.
The Punjab governor is expected to call all conveners of IUFBs later this week to bring uniformity in different issues related to the semester system, time period of the semester system, credit hours etc.
Following conveners' meeting, the governor plans to invite vice-chancellors of all Punjab universities to direct them that they should ensure the implementation of the revised curricula from the forthcoming academic session beginning from the next month.
The governor also voiced in the meeting that he had also plans to present the revised curricula in another meeting of all universities' vice-chancellors also to be participated in by Higher Education Commission chairman Prof Dr Attaur Rehman.
LAW: Inter-University Faculty Board in Law convener Prof Dr Dil Muhammad Malik gave a presentation on the revised curriculum of law that aimed at providing basic legal education to prospective lawyers, judges, public servants and other stakeholders from civil society for their initial capacity building in various walks of life.
Highlighting the broad and specific objectives, Prof Malik presented details of the revised curricula and the division of marks for respective papers and topics. He told the meeting that the IUFB had recommended to include an additional paper -- interpretation of statutes.
The paper-V in LLB Part-III will carry 100 marks. He also compared the revised courses currently in practice and those recommended by the HEC. Commenting on the revised curriculum, the governor stressed that the bulk of students' time should be spent on practical work like mock trials, input from TV and movies etc.
Prof Malik, who is also principal of PU Law College, told the governor that the university had launched an Institutional Evaluation Certificate. Initially, he said, this certificate would not affect students' grades.
However, gradually, he said, the employers would start giving weight to this certificate over the degree. He said the certificate would give a true picture of the student concerned as seen by his teacher and the head of the institution.
Responding to different suggestions at the meeting, the governor said the bulk of teaching in public sector universities should be done in English besides allowing bi-lingual teaching for the benefit of those coming from the rural areas.
The governor said the PU Law College should gradually shift to the semester system. Answering a question, Prof Malik said the PU was working on a project to introduce the subject of law at degree level so that qualified and serious students should study law.
PHARMACY: IUFB in pharmacy education convener and PU College of Pharmacy principal Prof Dr Muhammad Jamshaid said the college had started the first five-year Pharm-D programme, which was duly recommended by the Central Pharmacy Council of Pakistan in collaboration with the WHO and the health ministry. He said the course was also approved by the HEC last year.
He said the Pharm-D programme had a pre-requisite that the candidate either have an FSc pre-medical certificate or BSc with botany, zoology and chemistry. Prof Jamshaid said the Pharm-D programme aimed to produce highly competent, skilled and well-trained professionals to provide quality healthcare services to the community.
He said this programme would also help to standardize the practice of pharmacy that include custody, preparation, dispensing and provision of medicines together with systems and information to assure quality use.
He said the five-year programme would also help promote research and development in the field. He also explained the broader contents of the Pharm-D curricula, teaching methodologies, internal and external assessment modalities.
MASS COMMUNICATION: IUFB in mass communication convener Prof Dr Mugheesuddin Sheikh presented the MA mass communication -- a three sequence programme -- agreed by the board.
Prof Sheikh, who is also chairman of PU mass communication department, explained courses to be offered in different semesters along with allocation of credit hours. Giving details of the course contents, he said the department had decided to abolish summer vacation from the next year and involve students in learning one of five foreign languages for their exposure at international level.
He said the department had selected five foreign languages -- Arabic, French, Persian, Hindi and German -- to be taught in collaboration with the institutions concerned.He said the department would also launch a diploma in multi-media arts production after approval from the board of studies. He said the department was also reviewing MA development journalism (evening), M.Phil and PhD curricula.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: IUFB in IT convener Dr M Anwarur Rehman Pasha explained the revised curricula for BS in computer science, MS in computer science and BS in information technology.
He said these courses would help graduates to compete at international level. The governor suggested that the business management should be made a part of the curriculum. He also asked the IUFB to resolve the credit hours issue.
ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES: IUFB in administrative sciences convener Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal Jadoon explained the revised MPA degree programme that aimed to prepare public administrators and managers and sharpen their core values and managerial skills.
Prof Jadoon, who is also director of the PU's Institute of Administrative Sciences, said the requirement for the MPA degree had been revised from existing 60 credits hours after two-year BA/BSc to 66 credit hours after two-year BA/BSc and 36 credit hours after four-year BS/BBA.
Earlier, he said, there was no comprehensive examination and the IUFB had decided to include oral and written comprehensive examination. Prof Jadoon said the IUFB had included prerequisite courses -- government and politics, fundamentals of finance, logic and creative thinking, and communication and report writing -- for students, who would join after two-year BA/BSc programme. The students having four-year BS/BBA degree to their credit would be exempted form these course.
Against the existing specializations in human resource management, marketing and finance, he said the IUFB had also included public policy and management, non-profit and voluntary sector management topics for specialization.
Prof Jadoon told the meeting that majority of main public sector universities and almost all private chartered universities had not started the MPA programme due to lack of awareness. The governor said that he would direct all the main public sector universities in the province to start MPA programmes.
SPORTS SCIENCES: IUFB in sports sciences convener and PU sports sciences' department chairman Prof Dr Muhammad Asghar Javed explained the revised course contents of MA physical education and PhD in sports sciences.
He said the PU's sports sciences department was only four-year old and offering two-year master's degree on an annual system basis and three-year PhD based on the semester system.
Responding to questions, he said, the IUFB members did not allow to recommend MA physical education on the semester system saying that the existing faculty was not trained to offer semester system teaching. He also said that the quality faculty was not available
The governor, however, directed the IUFB to ensure the start of MA physical education courses on a semester system basis from the next academic session. He said the curriculum should be implemented from the next academic session beginning the next month.
He said the department should glorify the available faculty. He said the department should also focus on cycling, marshal arts, aerobics etc. He said that he would also ask the PU VC to build good facilities for the sports sciences' departments' students.
He also asked the department officials to create linkages with the anatomy departments of different medical colleges and gyms in the city. PU acting VC Prof Dr Azhar Ikram said the university would soon complete all formalities to launch MA physical education under the semester system.
SOCIAL WORK: IUFB in social work convener and PU social work department chairman Tahir Riaz Chaudhry explained the MA social work curriculum contents, marks weightage, teaching methodology, internal evaluation and institutional evaluation.
The governor suggested that the social work department should also include rise of extremism and attitude towards women and conduct practical work about the functioning of zakat, bait-ul-maal and Khushhali Bank. He also called the department to improve students' expertise in micro credit.
Mr Maqbool suggested that the department should take the Punjab government's initiative of collective marriages as a project and conduct research on the aftermath of these marriages.
He asked the social work department to start a semester system programme and conduct seminars relevant to society, publish research papers and establish linkages with the industry.
The governor also directed that the main universities in the province should start social work departments. He also directed the education department to look into the matter that social work departments at degree level were being closed down in colleges due to the lack of faculty. Responding to a query, PU acting VC said the university would work towards the launching of PhD programme in the department by hiring foreign faculty.
