Around 100 postgraduate students and faculty members attended the event which was chaired by KU Science faculty dean. PHOTO: FILE
In a bid to offer a helping hand to the students to improve their scientific writing skills, the University of Karachi (KU) organised an interactive workshop on dissertation writing, on Saturday. The initiative was taken by the newly-formed Office of Research Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) at the university in collaboration with the Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics (ISPA).
Around 100 postgraduate students and faculty members attended the event which was chaired by KU Science faculty dean, Prof. Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi. The attendees actively participated in the question-and-answer session and also shared their individual experiences.
“Identifying the purpose of your research project, expressing originality and significance, setting out appropriate goals, and maintaining strong organisation will help you as you develop a high quality thesis,” said Prof. Jawaid Quamar, the founding director of ISPA at KU. Dr Quamar, who is presently associated with the Iqra University, was the keynote speaker at the workshop.
Prof. Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi highlighted the importance of writing proper synopsis for research projects. “In order to achieve the research objectives, the candidate needs to gain a sufficient research grant by submitting well-developed proposals in accordance with the specifications of funding agencies,” she said. This could only be achieved when research projects were undertaken for the sake of acquiring new knowledge and not for getting a degree for promotion or achieving higher grades, she stressed.
Speaking about the aims and objectives of the ORIC, Dr Kazmi explained that it was a Higher Education Commission-supported project, which would exclusively work to motivate young researchers, faculty members and scholars to get funding support for their proposed innovative research projects from international and national agencies. “The ORIC project is aimed at creating better linkages between young researchers, funding agencies and relevant industry for future commercialisation of research products,” she added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2013.
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"...and not for getting a degree for promotion or achieving higher grades." I agree, from the start, a student's heart and mind should be prepared for something greater aim such as acquiring new knowledge that would be useful for everyone or specific group of people.