IBA convocation to be held on Dec 2

The annual convocation of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Karachi, is to take place on December 2 at the IBA, Karachi University campus. Announcing this at a press conference at the IBA’s city campus, Dr Farrukh Iqbal, dean of IBA, said the internationally renowned scientist Dr Atta-ur-Rehman would be the chief guest.

In reply to a media person’s question as to why the institute invited only political personalities like the governor or the chief minister to be chief guest, Dr Iqbal dispelled what he said was a misconception and said that the institute always invited people of high achievement and names to reckon with in their respective fields to be chief guest. In this context, he said that this year it was Dr Atta-ur-Rehman who was a scientist of international repute.

Talking about the overall working and achievements of the IBA, Dr Iqbal said that the institute believed in diversification and welcomed meritorious students regardless of their social or economic background. He said that around 800 students had received financial assistance amounting to Rs231 million-plus over the last academic year. 

He further said that the institute had begun a programme called the National Talent Hunt Programme (NTHP) over the last 10 years which was aimed at providing grooming to candidates from the far-flung, hitherto ignored areas of Pakistan to enroll in higher education institutions. 

He estimated that around a thousand students had benefited from this programme. Dwelling further on this, he said that the candidates were made to undergo training for two months whereby they were groomed in English, mathematics, and a little in social niceties.

He also cited the Aman Centre for Entrepreneurial Development at the institute. This centre, he said, was aimed at groups that were challenged in some way or another, and were priced accordingly. He said candidates were acquainted with and groomed in the techniques of entrepreneurship. He said that a large number of young people who had been groomed at the centre were flourishing entrepreneurs today. There were special programmes for women in entrepreneurship. One such programme, he said, won an international prize this year.

Dr Zeenat Ismail, Head of the National Talent Hunt Programme, and a member of the teaching staff, cited the case of a student from a very ordinary background in the interior of Sindh who initially owned a tea shop and said that after passing out from the institute, he was working for the internationally acclaimed finance organisation, PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC).

Earlier, Kamal Siddiqui, head of the institute’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism, enlightened the mediafolk on the working and achievements of the centre. He said that the centre, set up three years ago, offered in-service training to journalists through workshops and seminars and on-the-spot training at the state-of-the-art facilities. Thus far, he said, 700 journalists had benefited from the programme.

Outlining three main objectives of the centre, Siddiqui said it was aimed at state-of-the-art facilities. In this regard, he said that the centre could easily compare with any corresponding facility overseas. Then, he said, it was to further train journalists in the craft, and finally, he said that it would offer Masters courses in journalism.

He said there was the issue of consumption of the news where we see the emphasis of news shifting from the television to the mobile telephone and the internet. The last mentioned, he said, was a crying need as journalists seemed to be totally ignorant of the ethical demands of the profession.

Malahat Awan, Head of Alumni Affairs, Graduate Placement, External Relations, and Resource Mobilisation, while talking about the IBA, referred to it as an Island of Excellence.