Our universities are not succeeding in resolving local issues of society: Dr Valiudin

Dream University
Dreams are always there, they vary from person to person and are also coupled with societies so are the concepts of a dream university. Largely the role of universities is to impart knowledge, create it, and improve societies by its application. Every role is a comprehensive area of activities. University serves as a center where all people who have set themselves for such goals congregate for a concerted effort. This congregation leads you to achieve numerous levels of dreams that you see for any university.
My dream for Sir Syed University
I had set my goals once I joined this university. By the grace of God, we have achieved many parts of those goals like accreditation of programs, achieving KPIs in research programs, and drafting over 60 policies to create a conducive atmosphere in all areas. Each and everything is on our website to ensure transparency.
Shoulder to shoulder with the changing world
Covid 19 Pandemic taught us all. Now, we are pursuing a goal as to how to incorporate technology in all of our programs to enhance the level of learning. We were among 13 universities in terms of preparedness for online learning during the pandemic era. We do not compare ourselves with the rest of the world as we still lag far behind. We have to think collectively about how to take over 60 percent of our young population on board.
Are we failing to resolve local problems?
I feel our universities are not succeeding in resolving local issues of society. We are doing everything be it education, research, etc. but we are not addressing individual problems. Maybe we are referring to books written for different societies, research is not linked with local settings, and case studies that we use for business are also alien. We are not focusing on our problems. For instance, we {I mean all including academia, industry, and government} are still unable to solve the garbage problem in Karachi. Universities cannot work in isolation; students come from society and go back to society and work with industry and government. Unless we break the disconnect between us, we cannot succeed. Also, policies and their continuity are a must.
Inter-connectivity of universities
We {all universities} have been working in silos. Now people have begun realizing that without collective effort and connectivity, we cannot solve our problems. I can share that our university is in collaboration with numerous public as well as private universities in Pakistan. The biggest initiative in this regard is the National Idea Bank that we led taking along around 25 universities in Pakistan. Moreover, we are in collaboration with other universities in numerous programs.
Ideas Vs Reality
National Idea Bank served as a platform for interaction between the universities. It is an ongoing process but the benefit is that we are working collectively. In some programs, we are collaborating simultaneously with national and international universities. For instance, four Pakistani and three European universities are partners in a climate change program. Now we are working as collaborators rather than competitors.
Bottlenecks for implementation of projects
We need to change many things but they cannot be done with a single stroke. Things are changing wherever they can change gradually. We experienced it during our tenure at the National Idea Bank and we clinched results from the ideas that we implemented. We received every kind of support from all corners proving that the people are willing to support each other. We have finalized some projects with some other universities.
Engineering losing attraction
It is a reality. Not more than 50 percent of candidates appeared for admissions in engineering programs last year. Of course, it is not a good situation in a country like ours where the ratio of engineers should be bigger. There are multiple reasons for this situation. It will create a gap between supply and demand—a damage that we see. We see a rising demand around the world in the backdrop of emerging technologies and telecom. More and more young candidates are picking IT fields for the benefit of earning quickly. Maybe we are not able to convince the youth why engineering is necessary. They believe engineering has lost its scope. We have to work collectively.