Govt, industry, Academia fail to create synergy to
work together: Dr. Zubair A. Shaikh

Do you think our universities are really like think tanks? If yes, then are they recognized by governments and the industry?
Dr. Zubair Shaikh: We need to understand what misperception the governments, industry, and academia live in today. Unfortunately, all three are not doing what they are supposed to do. The governments have visions and resources in abundance but we have failed to create synergy to work with each other. We all three {government, industry, and academia} do not understand the definition of a think tank. That’s why we have failed to work on what we were supposed to do.
ER: Failing to work apart, but the availability of human resources and laboratories, and knowledge are enough to be recognized as a think tank?
DZS: In fact, it is the vision that has to be translated, it should come from the government. Pakistan has to decide what model it wants to follow for its development. What we have done here is to make a mind of the researchers to write papers for promotions. Even our accreditation bodies acknowledge written papers written by the professors. Neither the governor nor the HEC promotes a culture wherein we sit with the industry and talk about resolving issues. We see the theoretical aspect rather than looking at the applied aspect. In the US or Germany, you need not research papers while doing a Phd.
We need to set the priority first that must be by the HEC. Let me tell you that country does not require PhDs and if any one chose to do it, it was his or her wish; not a compulsion. We should have engaged industry in our universities like to send our students to the industry. I had all these things at my university.My professors visit the industry for industrial knowledge and the people from the industry visit our university as a visiting faculty. We pay for it.
ER: This is the model that you have made for your university. What model do we follow in the country?
DZS: As a claim, we follow the American model and design our semester-based curriculum on it. We are following an obsolete model and it is not workable after the internet era and openness. Today, the teachers’ role has turned out to be that of a facilitator. Now the processes and knowledge have become collectively not restricted to just one teacher.
It is a unit-based concept that is to be used for education now. This model should be applied in engineering and technical studies. We are using it at some universities but keep it concealed to satisfy HEC and PEC.
ER: Even in this environment, do the government and industry approach you for resolving issues?
DZS: In the developed world industry sits right in the academia, whereas we stay far from each other. What is Silicon Valley? It was a real state of Stanford University and others where the companies started to be launched. We don’t have such a culture developed in the country.
Secondly, Pakistan’s industry does not have an R&D culture. The government should create an R&D Division to promote this culture.
There may be some tax rebates and thus the industry will start coming to academia. Thirdly, the industry believes academia is more theoretical. Therefore they need to sit together to understand each other.
ER: What are the most pressing issues that you are facing as the vice-chancellor of MAJU?
DZS: For me, it is to align our faculty with the vision. It is a big challenge for you to succeed in gelling up the team and giving them vision. I usually organize a research bethak in the university, we discuss things like a think tank so that we work for national development. We float big issues for our students in a course so that they start thinking. They are linked with SDGs. We get the students to develop case studies.
ER: How is your university coping with the flood of emerging technologies?
DZS: Technologies are changing fast and we have to be abreast of it and not be fearful of it. Data analytics is the next game-changer. Now instead of cyber security, we have cyber warfare. These two things are important to think about. Heads of the institutions have to be leaders.
ER: What landmark achievement would you like to share with us?
DZS: MAJU is the number one university in Sindh and it has expanded and continues to be expanding in a variety of fields. We are a general university having engineering, biosciences, social sciences and now entered education too. In online raking, we are among the top ten universities in Pakistan.