KARACHI: The University of Karachi in collaboration with George Mason University (GMU) has organised an event for faculty members of 14 different universities to discuss significant changes in the social sciences syllabus of the country’s higher education institutions.

A complete course structure has been developed for capacity building of faculty under the broad academic domain of social sciences including arts, humanities, management, and administrative sciences at the undergraduate level.

The KU and GMU under the US-funded University Partnerships Grants Programme 2020-23 had earlier this year launched the ‘sustainable curriculum development’ aimed at expanding career opportunities for young students through sustainable curriculum design.

Under this project, 330 faculty members of 14 partner universities were trained on their respective campuses within a short span of 45 days.

The vice chancellors and representatives of the 14 partner universities met KU VC Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi here and discussed how to implement the sustainable curriculum development project in their respective universities.

They also held discussion about possible outcomes of the sustainable curriculum development project and its impact on the local market and society. The toolkits of the sustainable curriculum development project were also distributed among the 14 partner universities.

Prof Iraqi shared in the western world, universities can make necessary changes as per the requirements of the market and industry and that’s why their graduates are able to perform every task,.

“Unfortunately, here in Pakistan, we are unable to do so due to which we are lagging behind in all spheres of life, especially in invention, innovation, and creativity,” he regretted.

He said due to this the young generation was facing problems in getting jobs in and outside the country.

For a strong collaboration between industries and universities, it is imperative to develop a sustainable curriculum keeping in mind the needs of the market through which students can develop their products and become part of the market,” he said, adding: “There is no lack of intelligence and creative thinking among our youth, but it is necessary to establish a sustainable curriculum to implement their creative thinking and creations and to promote innovation and new research.”

Later, they visited different departments of the university and attended the opening ceremony of the first day of a two-day conference at the Multipurpose Hall ICCBS, KU.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2022