KARACHI: A five-member delegation of the World Bank led by its Senior Social Development Specialist of Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice Imran ul Haq met the Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Dr Muhammad Farrukh Nawaz of KU Institute of Environmental Studies, KU Director of Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization Dr Syeda Hoor-ul-Ain and ORIC team at the VC Secretariat on Friday.
During the meeting, they discussed the potential of the establishment of the WB Centre for Environmental and Social Sustainability initiative in Pakistan.
WB Imran Haq informed that the World Bank is interested in creating a centre of excellence in the province which could help in catering the environmental issues, and help in providing durable and long-lasting solutions, and social sustainability in the country.
He shared that the proposed CESS project aims to create ownership among individuals and all the stakeholders including governments, industries, masses, and academia besides the capacity building of a society.
Imran ul Haq mentioned that the WB delegation has short-listed four possible varsities for the establishment of CESS and the University of Karachi is one of them.
According to him, they have linked up with 16 universities and after a thorough process. They have short-listed four universities in Karachi and initially met with the heads of all three institutions before visiting the KU.
He elaborated that the CESS is supposed to strengthen the partnership of donors, governments, industries, academia, and others in environmental and social sustainability of the development process as well as help in improving environmental conditions, safeguarding social values, educating the importance of the CESS to society, doing in-depth research, preparing policies to protect the environment and improve the quality of the environment.
He said that the WB would like to take other donor agencies on board too regarding the CESS and hoped that with the collaboration of institutions like the Asian Development Bank, and Japan International Cooperation Agency the CESS project would be more useful for society.
On this occasion, the KU faculty member Muhammad Farrukh Nawaz and the KU Director of ORIC Dr Syeda Hoor-ul-Ain described the functions of various centres of excellence working in the KU and the impact of research being conducted in the departments and centres of the University of Karachi.
They hoped that the proposed CESS project would help strengthen the research and development capacity of the faculty members of the University of Karachi.
Meanwhile, the KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi shared that KU has established an Industry Advisory Board at the departmental level and each of them has field experts available to suggest changes in the curriculum as per the market’s needs and help the students to get internships and jobs during the final years of their studies.
He mentioned that we want to produce skilful graduates from the campus and that is why new degree courses are being introduced during the last two to three years.
The KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi informed the visiting delegation the University of Karachi has also taken field experts into its fold as visiting teachers in several departments so that the students could learn more about the field during their studies on the campus.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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