The Oxford & Cambridge Society, Karachi Educational Trust (OCSKET)

NED University Karachi

The NED University of Engineering and Technology is the oldest institution in Pakistan for teaching and training Graduate Engineers. It was started in 1922 as an Engineering College to provide Civil Engineers for what at that time was the Sindh Division of the Bombay presidency in India. That college now is the city campus of this university and is one of the heritage structures of Karachi; it now accommodates the Architecture Department of this University. When the NED College was first established, it was affiliated to the University of Bombay. After partition of the subcontinent in 1947, the land on which the college stood, having been taken over by the Provincial Education Department, the College itself was managed by its Board of Governors until it was nationalized in 1972. Thereafter, the College was shifted to the location now occupied by the Main Campus, developed with World Bank funding and eventually elevated to university status on 1st March 1977.

1. A. The Main Campus to which the college was shifted in 1972 is on University Road adjacent to the University of Karachi. The College was raised to university status in 1977 – starting at that time with three Engineering Disciplines. The University however now offers undergraduate programmes in 19 (nineteen ) disciplines including Architecture at the City Campus and two disciplines in the bio-medical Engineering Department located in the LEJ Campus virtually donated to the university in 2004. The University now also offers postgraduate programmes in all its disciplines as well as one in Environmental Engineering which is not included amongst undergraduate degree programmes – all its degrees have international recognition.

B. The university has its own Digital Library and is also its own Internet Service Provider. Under the Development Programme being funded by the Higher Education Commission not only are more new Engineering disciplines being introduced but the entire infrastructure of this university is being expanded and strengthened.

C. The NED University did not make the mistake of going in from the very beginning exclusively for research and production of Doctorate Degrees despite pressures from the Higher Education Commission. It concentrated first on production of first class graduate engineers who could be absorbed by industries, public utilities and all other concerns employing engineers. Thereafter it concentrated on offering several Master’s level Postgraduate Degree programmes; the arrangements made included provision for working graduate engineers to improve their qualifications by attending evening classes.

2. The University has now four fully formed Faculties Civil Engineering and Architecture, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering along with Information, Sciences and Humanities plus the fifth Faculty of Chemical, Metallurgical and Process Engineering now under formation. Within this framework, undergraduate programmes are offered in nineteen disciplines on regular basis along with one other only in Conversion Course in Marine Engineering for individuals holding Mercantile Marine Chief Engineer’s tickets.

3. At the next stage, Postgraduate Masters’ level programmes are also offered ten (10) in Engineering along with one each in Computer Science and in Architecture and Planning. These Master level Degree programmes are offered mostly in the evenings because by far the majority of individuals seeking admission to these programmes are employed and can attend classes only in evening. The University also has its Doctorate Degree programme which at present is restricted only for Faculty Development but would be opened to outside Research Scholars within about two years – in all probably from July 2011.

4. Faculty Members in this University are encouraged to devote as much time as possible to Research without however in any way affecting their responsibilities for teaching undergraduates which has to be their primary responsibility. This University now publishes its Half Yearly Research Journal.

5. The University has also recently begun addressing all its Alumni both in Pakistan and abroad. The University wants only ‘good will’ from its Alumni; until recently it was not able to establish proper contacts but this deficiency is also now being remedied/rectified.

6. The University also attaches great importance to Student Facilities including Co-Curricular as well as Sports and Games besides Industrial Liaison. It encourages all legitimate student activities but does not permit any political religious or ethnic activity within the Campuses.

The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi

The IBA was established in 1995 as a USAID - Government of Pakistan project, Initially the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania, provided the technical support; later the University of Southern California got the contract. Both the contractors helped set up the first modem business school in the sub-continent out of North America. Several prominent American professors were assigned to the IBA. A large number of Pakistani faculty members received advanced degrees from Wharton and USC. Till 1994, the University of Karachi awarded degrees to IBA graduates and then in that year, the Sindh Assembly elevated the Institute's status to that of a degree-awarding institution. Inspite of a rapid increase in the number of business schools in the country, the IBA has maintained its position as the premier institution of higher learning in the field of business administration.

The vision of IBA is to become a world-class business school for leadership and innovation in management and be counted among the top 50 business schools in Asia. For this, the IBA administration upholds and promotes the core values of merit, truth, integrity, creativity, discipline and tolerance amongst its faculty, students and administrative staff. The administration of IBA tries to ensure that no meritorious student be deprived of studying at IBA due to his/her financial constraints.

Distinguishing features of the IBA are the induction of students though a systematic and merit-based admission process, training in a demanding academic environment, and on-time completion of study programs. Admission procedures, curricula, methods of instruction and the system of examinations at the IBA give it a unique position among leading educational institutions in Pakistan.