Convocation: Graduates share aspirations and dreams

Iqra University Islamabad campus holds second convocation.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad campus of Iqra University handed out bachelors and masters degrees to students of fashion and textile design, computer sciences, telecommunications, business administration and social sciences on Saturday at the Convention Centre.

Families and faculty joined students during the rite of passage; however, because the university’s second convocation clubbed four years worth of students together, many have already taken the next step towards further education or the working world.

Mariam Mehmood, Bachelors in Textile Design, said that in her discipline working alone brings about the best work. “I think creative fields such as textile are subject to the individuals talent first, and then the teachers later, to bring about different and unique work,” she said.

On the other hand, Textile Design gold medallist Rabael Hashmi wants to pursue further education. She is currently teaching at the national cultural studies department at Lok Virsa and believes that the most artistic freedom is available with weaving as it is a concept one has total control over. “There are so many direction one can take and the final product is always so rewarding,” she commented.

MSc computer sciences gold medallist Abdul Hannan is interested in created something a little more volatile – artificial intelligence. He believes that the future of technology is in the hands of this creation and its perfection.

“It’s already all around us but we need to eliminate the biases [in the technology],” he said.

Hannan believes that biases are a natural occupational hazard of all creators of knowledge but that the mark of a great creator is that they can eliminate cultural, mathematical and systematic biases by setting higher standards in research.

Finance Minister Hafiz Sheikh, the chief guest, encouraged all of the graduates to pursue their academic and occupational dreams in his address.

“This batch of graduates will take the country forward as the university has fulfilled its three tenets of generating knowledge, disseminating it and imparting it without bias,” Sheikh said.

He told students to not forget the power of the self and one person, as history time and again has instances of great strides that men and women have achieved, giving the example of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Speaking on the aspect of higher education, he commented on the importance of the private sector and how it can create opportunities for knowledge where the public sector cannot. He stated this has already been accomplished, as the last six years have seen 66 new universities and colleges in Pakistan, most of them private.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2012.