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Friday March 29, 2024

Career counselling;questions and answers

By Syed Azhar Husnain Abidi
June 08, 2020

Q1: Respected Abidi Sb, I am willing to study abroad but right now I thought to get up-to-date information on admission policy of foreign institutions. For this purpose, I'm sure you are the right person. Can you please let me know if different foreign countries and institutions will start their on-campus education? I would appreciate your response. (Dilshad Fazal, Jhelum)

Ans: Foreign institutions from most popular study destinations like UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc., have given a very comprehensive and clear admission policies on their websites. As we all know that there are still no normal circumstances anywhere in the world and there is still uncertainty but institutions have still tried hard to keep admission and study procedures on track and normal to avoid wastage of whole year of studies. So they are going towards what they call it Blended Education in which they will start September/ October term with online education and students will be given material/ instructions so that they can study from their home country. After this from January, 2021, they will take you on regular session. Still some institutions are giving options to start from September/ October with some online and some face to face education depending on how many years course you are going to start whether undergraduate or postgraduate. All these possibilities do exist.

Q2: Sir, can you please advise and give information for those students who are interested to study in a foreign country and have got their offers even some have paid their tuition fees. But as you know Covid-19 pandemic is still there. Therefore, some of the parents do not wish to send their children abroad for study and want to get their tuition fees refunded? Do you think they will get their tuition fees refunded and if they can get their courses deferred to next intake/next year? (Nabeela Bashir, Lahore)

Ans: This is very important question. All institutions are facilitating with up-to-date information given on their websites and with clear conditions on their offer letters refund policies. Institutions are working hard to start their studies from September/ October 2020 if the circumstances come to normal then they will start online education and later on from second term start face to face education. Some institutions have January intake but few have only September/October intakes. But in both cases if you want to defer to next intake /year or wish to get refunds then you have the options available.

Q3: Sir, I passed FSc pre-engineering with 72% marks last year. I have planned to study further but I am not having information about universities. Please I want you to pay a kind attention to guide me that what is best to study for me? (Zoha Jibran, Karachi)

Ans: You should firstly have to decide what you want to study, the degree that you want to do and whether you want to study in Pakistan or abroad. This will of course depend on your family circumstance, your financial background and your current place of residence if you choose to study at a Pakistani university. In case you wish to select a university abroad then all these things become very important before an advice can be given to you. Please let me know the answer to all these questions and perhaps we can help you out in finding a suitable degree and university for you.

Q4: l recently completed my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Human Resource Management (HRM) with 2.67 CGPA and now I want to do a job. I will appreciate your kind advice for my future career? (Samar Abbas, Islamabad)

Ans: I see you have got masters in business (HR) already and it is highly recommended that you pursue your career within the HRM domain. While, you can focus on HR you may be able to use your management skills to learn more about management decision-making, marketing, finance and other aspects of business. In case you don’t find a relevant job I would suggest that you go for an internship paid or unpaid and once you have a hands on experience your career opportunities will be enhanced in future.

(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).