Newly launched Malir University promises good quality, affordable education

Varsity has two campuses at Malir Kalaboard and Koohi Goth in Landhi

KARACHI: Malir University of Science and Technology, which promises good quality and affordable education has been launched in a ceremony held on Tuesday.

The main purpose behind establishing Malir University is to serve the people of Malir, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Korangi and adjoining rural areas, said physician and educationist Prof Syed Tipu Sultan, who is serving as the chancellor. He was speaking at the launch event attended by social, political and educational elite, professionals and philanthropists.



Sponsored by Zafar and Atia Foundation Charitable Trust, the university has not been built by a corporation or builders but by a group of professors, doctors and philanthropists, he clarified. Thus the motive is not to make profits, he said. The varsity's city campus is located at Malir Kalaboard and the main campus in Koohi Goth, Landhi.

Earlier, Malir University pro-vice-chancellor Prof Serajuddaula Syed, spoke about Zafar and Atia Foundation Charitable Trust and its contributions in health and education sectors.

Dr Mehtab S Karim — who has served at well-known universities in Pakistan and the UK and was until recently a distinguished professor of public policy in the US — has been appointed as vice-chancellor. The board of governors have requested him to recruit highly qualified, committed and research-focused faculty. The faculty members will be offered good salaries but the burden will not fall on students, who will pay the same tuition fee as being charged by public sector universities, explained Sultan.

During his address, Dr Karim pointed out that the recently released ranking of universities by the Higher Education Commission suggests that higher education needs substantial overhaul, particularly in the areas of research and faculty development. In the 1980s, the government took a bold step by awarding charters to three universities in the private sector, whose number has now increased to over 70, he said.



In Karachi alone, 29 universities and degree-awarding institutions have so far been established in the private sector. Unfortunately, most have been established on individual or family ownership basis, without any concern for established academic standards, he lamented. Besides, most of them are offering BBA, MBA and MBBS degrees with strong profit-making motives. They are not offering degrees in crucial fields of science, arts and social sciences, as these are not money-making subjects, he pointed out.

Dr Karim questioned where our future thinkers, philosophers and academics as well as political leaders come from. Addressing this gap, Malir University of Science and Technology hopes to provide good quality, affordable education by promoting meaningful research and producing responsible and humanistic future leaders.

Due to its location in a low-middle-income area of Karachi with close proximity to rural areas, the university can become a place where young students from different cultural backgrounds will be able to mingle with each other, he hoped. Earlier in his address, gynaecologist, writer and human rights activist Dr Shershah Syed traced the history of universities. Though the first university of the world was established in Taxilla near Rawalpindi, the state of education in the contemporary Pakistani society is deplorable, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2016.