Seminar: Encouraging social responsibility at universities

Participants applaud initiative to promote civic engagement.

ISLAMABAD:

At an event held on Monday, academics came together to launch an initiative to reiterate the importance of civic engagement and celebrate the completion of US-funded programme twinning five Pakistani universities with US universities.

The law and order crisis Pakistan is currently facing goes back to the 80s when Pakistan and the US went into Afghanistan to fight Russia and then abandoned civic engagement by leaving all the militants in the region, said Minister for Planning and Development Dr Ahsan Iqbal at a seminar on “Pak-US Higher Education Initiatives on Civic Engagement.”

“We are collectively responsible for the mess we created in the region when we were producing warriors instead of investing in cutting-edge technology,” he added.

US Ambassador Richard Olson said, “Yes, we accept the mistake made by the US and both our countries should not repeat it.”

Iqbal presided over the inaugural session culminating in the launch of the Pakistan Chapter of The Talloires Network to promote a culture of civic engagement and social responsibility at institutions of higher learning.



Higher Education Commission Chairperson Javaid Laghari said academic social responsibility is the key to prosperity and leadership in communities, producing not only professionals but people who benefit society,” the HEC chief added. Earlier, NUST Rector Eng. Muhammad Asghar highlighted the prominent features of the initiative and implementation plan to promote a culture of social responsibility and civic engagement.

Rao Nadeem from Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), who attended a programme on civic engagement at a US university, told The Express Tribune that training courses and community participation helped him understand how to engage with society as an academician. “QAU has initited a programme to train schoolteachers in nearby villages and help them enhance their intellectual capabilities,” he said. Five Pakistani universities, NUST, QAU, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Dow University of Health Sciences, and Fatima Jinnah Women University, have been paired with George Washington University, Tulane University, University of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, and University of North Carolina and have begun exchange programmes.

The seminar, held at National University of Science and Technology, was sponsored by the US state department.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2013.