Career counselling: questions and answers

Q1: Salam, sir what is the difference between Aviation and Aeronautical? (Kamran - Sialkot)

Ans: Aviation is a domain or branch that deals with all flying/aircraft management and technical support. This covers airport management, ground services, technical and navigation support, repair and maintenance, logistics of airport, human resources at airport, security and other related matters. However, aeronautical engineering basically is dealing with manufacturing of aircrafts, research and development in aircrafts and flying machines, safety of aircrafts, repair and maintenance in manufacturing of all flying machines etc. In short, aviation tends to relate more towards understanding of managing the airports, passengers, cargo and airplanes, while aeronautical engineering is purely the manufacturing, development and maintenance of aircrafts.

Q2: I have completed my BSc (Hons) in Agriculture with major subject as horticulture. What subjects I should choose for Master degree? Kindly guide me. (Nafees – Faisalabad)

Ans: There are several specialisations that you can choose; however, it depends

on whether or not you wish to do it from Pakistan or abroad. As many of them are not offered in Pakistan, these include MSc Floriculture and Landscaping, Landscaping and Wellbeing, Sustainable Plant Health, Urban Planning, Social and Therapeutic etc. All these degrees make you specialist in anyone of the above disciplines and you can also choose to do research going forward.

Q3: Sir, I have done Bachelors in Biochemistry form Kinnaird College for Women and currently started my MPhil in Biochemistry from the same college. Recently, I got admission in University of Health Sciences in MPhil Biochemistry. Kindly guide me which institute will be better for continuing my studies in terms of research area and if I further want to study abroad. Raheela – Lahore)

Ans: Biochemistry is a very vast domain and has great opportunities if you are planning research in this area. Since MPhil involves doing self-study and research project, you must examine, analyse and evaluate an institution from its research portfolio. This means that you should comprehensively look at the research facilities, laboratories and above all faculty who would be supervising you towards that research. The other important thing is to look at the availability of relevant research material, publications, journals and whether or not you can get the information needed for your research through international online libraries using the particular university facilities. All these are important points to compare the two institutions that you plan to start your MPhil from.

Q4: Sir, I passed matric with 90% marks and FSc with 82% marks. Can you please guide me what should I choose from Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Pharmacy or Psychology. Do you think I am capable to get admission in one of these areas easily? (Mudassir - Multan)

Ans: After having looked at your grades in matric and FSc, I am sure you can get admission in one of the above-mentioned subjects. My suggestion is to keep Pharmacy & Biotechnology, Molecular Biology on priority. However, you can choose psychology and become a professional but you must have a passion and interest in this area as it is a very different subject area.

(Syed Azhar Husnain Abidi is a renowned educationist in Pakistan, with more than 20 years of experience as provider of education counselling services. He has represented Pakistan in over 100 national and international seminars, conferences and fora. He is a recipient of the most coveted civil award Tamgha-e-Imtiaz).