Career counselling: questions and answers

Q1: Respected Mr Abidi, I did my BS in Statistics about five years back. It has been two years since I started working as a Statistician. Now I wish to study MPhil. But the problem is with my full-time job I am unable to manage my studies full time or I have another option of doing a masters in “Epidemiology and Biostatistics”. Please note that it is equal to MPhil once the thesis is submitted. Can you please advise which one I should choose, MSc Biostatistics or MSc Statistics? (Imran Sattar, Lahore).

Ans: Imran if you want to study MPhil, your intention shows that you would also be planning to do PhD and after which you would be going to teaching which is a very good option. I tell you that there is a very high demand for health statisticians or medical statisticians and yes these are very expensive courses. However, if you do these courses, your chances of getting a better job are very high. I hope this information will help you to get to a better decision.

Q2: Sir, I am confused which field I should choose for admission in a bachelor’s after my successful completion of FSc Pre-Medical. I am interested in doing either Textile Designing or Biomedical Engineering. I seek your kind guidance in this regard. (Bakhtawar Azfar Rana, Faisalabad)

Ans: Dear Bakhtawar, I note the courses which you have chosen are very appropriate/good. Please note that Textile Designing needs some creativity with some knowledge of drawing/ sketching etc. If you think you have some knowledge or you are good at the above skills, then it is a good subject. On the other hand, Biomedical Engineering is no doubt a very popular and emerging subject area but for this, you need to have good marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

Q3: Dear Mr Abidi, I am a student of Social Work (4-year honours degree). But I am not sure of its career prospects. I have asked my teacher several times about the scope of this degree but didn’t get a satisfactory answer. I had a main interest in Mass Communication but I was selected in this department. Please advise me the right path as I am not sure if my course selection is good? (Namrata Kohli, Karachi)

Ans: Dear Miss Namrata, my advice to you is that you should try and work hard to get your degree successfully completed. Once you are done with this degree try to study a postgraduate degree in a different subject. At that point, I can give you proper guidelines on how to study further.

Q4: Sir, I read your column last week and decided to request you for some expert advice. My degree in BS Botany is going to complete next year. I wish to go abroad for higher studies but I don’t have the funds. My question to you is if there are any scholarships available for MS/ MPhil? If yes, please let me know how to apply for these scholarships/procedures. Also, note that I don’t have an IELTS certificate. I will appreciate your guidance for my future as I know your advice would be very useful for me. (Aleena Michael, Nankana)

Ans: As your results are yet to be received; I think it would be too early to think about studying in a foreign country or getting a scholarship. It depends what grades/ marks you get in the final result of your degree because scholarship requirements are always very high and require a very good CGPA or percentage. As far as IELTS certificate is concerned, it is a language test and mandatory requirement for foreign universities which means no question for scholarship arises if you don’t have this.

(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).