Academics must impart better education

Dearth of intelligentsia worrying sign, says AUST VC Iftikhar

ABBOTTABAD: Universities are expected to have a transformative effect on students and mould them into leaders and decent human beings by dispensing quality education.

However, the situation on the ground was in stark contrast to this.

This was stated by Abbottabad University of Science & Technology (AUST) Vice Chancellor Iftikhar Ahmed while speaking to a fresh batch of students during their orientation on Thursday.

Ahmed said the selection board of a public sector university had evaluated 30 PhD students for the post of assistant professor of physics. However, he lamented, none of the candidates could qualify.

The vice chancellor further said that during the final viva of the M.Sc. physics at another varsity, students were shockingly unable to define basic terms such as vectors and scalars.

He added that the poor performance of university graduates in fields such as academics, medicine, engineering, law, business, and even politics was a worrying sign.

He accused professional academics of dispensing poor higher education to students.

He said that the only panacea for meeting global challenges and increasing competition was inculcating hard work and professionalism among faculty members.

Ahmed said that only faculty members could nurture students and prepare them for future leadership roles

Faculty members from different departments as well as researchers were also in attendance during the lecture.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.