Three vibrant affairs: In a splash of colours, over a thousand students graduate

IVSAA, IoBM and IBA graduates are ready to face the ‘real’ world.

KARACHI:

Over a thousand mortarboards flew up in the air at three different institutions of the city as aspiring economists, architects and accountants geared up to take the job market by storm on Saturday.

The convocations of the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA) and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) were organised in a dazzling display of colours.

At the IVSAA campus, 114 beaming graduates were clad in gold and teal robes inspired by the Mughals and caps like the ones worn in Hunza valley. Amongst the graduates, 95 were conferred Bachelor’s degrees and the rest were awarded diplomas.

When the school’s executive director, Samina Raees Khan, took the stage and announced that the girls outnumbered the boys, the audience burst into cheers. When they settled down, she offered a few words of wisdom to the students. “If you cease to forgive, you will plant the seeds of hatred and revenge in your heart. These will serve as a barrier to your own personal growth and peace of mind.”

The keynote speaker, Aga Khan University’s founder president, Dr Shams Kassim Lakha, sad the graduates were lucky. “You [students] should consider yourself fortunate as no engineer or doctor has the honour of protecting heritage.”

The students themselves were in no hurry to scurry into a nine-to-five. Aasiyah Zaidi, an architecture graduate, said, “We just got done with our thesis. We want to relax and think about work later.”



The class of 2012 at three institutions are ready for the job market. Students of IVSAA graduated on Saturday. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR & ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS  

Meanwhile at IoBM…

Not to be outdone, around 824 IoBM graduates clad in blue and cream robes with heavily embroidered Ajrak borders gathered at the institution to receive their degrees. Mortarboards of the same colour were jammed on their heads.

Of them, around 15 were awarded certificates of merit and another 11 won gold medals for their academic excellence. The rivalry between the institutions was evident. “We are equipped with the same skills as graduates [from other schools], so employers have no reason to favour them,” said Sarah Habib, a graduate of the institution’s MBA programme. As IoBM’s official anthem blared from the speakers, the convocation procession entered the marquee led by the head of the economics department, Prof. Dr Shahida Wizarat. The chancellor Illahi Bukhsh Soomro, president Shahjehan Karim and State Life Insurance Corporation’s CEO Shahid Aziz Siddiqui, who was the chief guest, handed out the degrees. As soon as the ceremony ended, the students - who had been sitting calmly - stood up and threw their mortarboards amid cheers.

Dr Talat Nur, the gold medalist of the institution’s hospital management programme said she wanted to strengthen her management skills. “My wish was to acquire a formal angle on how to go about managing affairs of a hospital and as far as studies were concerned, I have learnt so many things which I did not know.”

IoBM’s MBA in industrial management course also drew a number of professional engineers who once studied at institutions such as NED University of Engineering and Technology and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology.

The go-getters



The class of 2012 at three institutions are ready for the job market. Students of IBA graduated on Saturday. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR & ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS 

Though IBA’s convocation was a simpler affair, it was the amazing job offers that injected liveliness and excitement to the event.

Almost 90 percent of the MBA graduates have already found jobs, said the institution’s dean and director, Dr Ishrat Husain while speaking at the convocation. The average monthly salary for the MBA graduates this year was Rs66,400, which is almost 24 percent higher than last year’s average. “We’re comforted that the market is beginning to realise the value of our MBAs and is compensating them adequately at higher than entry-level salaries.”

Out of the 231 BBA graduates, as many as 170 have found jobs that they like. The average starting salary for this group was Rs43,200 a month - 18 percent higher than last year’s figures. Fewer IBA graduates joined the banking sector this year, although it used to be a major career choice for most of them in the past.

Talking to The Express Tribune, BBA graduate Muzammil Zafar said that up to 70 percent of his classmates received multiple job offers during studies. Some of them were even offered a whopping Rs70,000 a month. Another BBA graduate, Arsalan Salahuddin Khan, said he had received four job offers in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector while he was studying. But he has opted to pursue graduate studies instead.

Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation founder Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi received an honorary doctorate in management at the convocation for his philanthropic services over the last four decades.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2012.