PU faculty members urged to set targets for future direction

PU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran has called upon faculty members to set targets for future direction of the University and persistently strive for their attainment by putting their heads together and joining hands as a single fraternity in order to lift this institution of higher learning to an enviable pedestal and for saving future of 185 million inhabitants of the country in coming decades.
These views were expressed by him in a letter addressed to all varsity colleagues issued here on Sunday.
The Vice-Chancellor stressed that if the Punjab University fails, Pakistan is bound to fail but if PU takes off, Pakistan is bound to take off as well. Continuity and ownership of developmental activities can only be ensured for the country if targets are set after consultation with academic community. Thus we have a very heavy responsibility on our shoulders which we are duty-bound to meet with fullest energy, genuine spirit and commitment, he added.
Dr Kamran said the present administration has paid special attention to Ph.D and faculty development programmes so that the entire faculty possesses Ph.D degrees for training young graduates in the art of research to promote creation of new knowledge, which can truly be termed as the backbone of any varsity. There are currently 30,000 students at PU with 896 regular and contractual faculty members, out of which only 298 are Ph.Ds. As against this, the Manchester University with a student body of 35,000, has 3,900 faculty members and a PhD population close of 5800. At the PU, the faculty of Life Sciences is the most productive research-wise because it has the highest percentage of Ph.D faculty members.
Those faculties having no previous tradition of research, are also now picking up. These faculties were rarely awarded Ph.D scholarships in the past and therefore hardly had any Ph.Ds among their faculty members. This situation has now changed and in a few years time we will have a large number of Ph.Ds in these faculties, as their members return after completing higher studies from foreign universities. Dr Kamran observed that if a target of 1,500 faculty members together-with a suitable number of post-doctorates and a well populated Ph.D programme is set in the PU, we can help lift our varsity position in global rankings. But this would require huge additional funding which will have to be generated right from today, he remarked.