By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The Chancellor of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, Jawaid Anwar, held a series of meetings with the faculty members to have a closer interaction with them, particularly on academic affairs.
The departmental meetings with the Chancellor continued throughout the week, starting from September 23, a thorough exercise during which the helmsman met each faculty member individually.
Each faculty member introduced themselves, explained their workload and discussed with the Chancellor the progress in their respective department.
In every meeting Chancellor Jawaid Anwar thanked the faculty members highlighted the importance of close communication between university administration and faculty and assured that hurdles and barriers, if any, thereof were being overcome and he himself, Vice-Chancellor, Dean Engineering and Registrar were making every effort in this regard.
He observed that in order to facilitate the achievement of the objective there should be time track system and instructions have been issued to P&D, Finance, Procurement and other departments that movement of any file from one department to other should not take more than two days on one table.
“It is imperative for smooth working and to avoid delays in disposal of files,” he stressed. He also spoke about student-faculty relationship and described the same as a key factor for the students were the main focus of the university.
"We have to train them for a better behaviour. Therefore all faculty members should focus on student' counseling,” he asserted and reminded that the university possessed a Career Guidance Centre to provide required guidance to them.
The faculty, he said, can help polish the students because some of them are uncut diamonds, some are unpolished and some are polished but need more shine.
"You have to meet the expectation of the students and faculty should go one step ahead in this regard", the Chancellor remarked and said as to how to polish student and enrich them with knowledge should be taken as a challenge.
"We are here to support faculty members because faculty is the pillar of any institution and wherever possible we will be there to support them,” he held out a firm assurance.
The Chancellor spoke about issues of medical insurance and salary raise and said that headway has been made in this regard and to some extent regarding medical insurance as well.
“An increase in salary from July 2016 has already been made. As regards promotions, this will be done through selection board and our selection board is working on a fast track. However let me make it clear that promotion will be given only on merit. Whosoever will qualify will get promotion,” he declared.
On the occasion the Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Jawaid H. Rizvi thanked all the faculty members as well as the Chancellor while Dean Faculty of Engineering also thanked both the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor.
In his brief remarks on the occasion, Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali advised all the faculty members to get registered from the Registrar office before arranging or joining any seminar, workshop and programme.
He observed that the faculty members do actively participate in the programmes but they could not be recognized or appreciated due to unawareness of the management.
As regards the day to day issues and to resolve them, the Registrar announced that a focal person from each block will be assigned the due task in this respect.
In the meeting with Computer Engineering Department, Chairman Dr Shakil Ahmed thanked the Chancellor, VC, Dean Faculty of Engineering and Registrar for holding the meeting.
In the meeting with Electronic Engineering Department, Chairman, Dr Tahir Qadri briefly described the history of EED, its work and progress.
In the meetings with Biomedical Engineering Department, Telecommunication Engineering Department and Electrical Engineering Department, D Haleem (BMD), Dr Talat Altaf (ELED) and Engr. Umair Jillani (TED) had lively discussions on various issues.
Dr S M Makhdumi, Chairman, Civil Engineering Department, thanked the Chancellor for giving him the opportunity to explain about the various aspects of his department.
He briefly discussed the importance of civil department and increasing admissions over the years. On the final day, the Chancellor held meeting with departments of Basic and Applied Sciences, Computer Science and Bio-Informatics.
Prof Dr Jawaid H. Rizvi, VC and Dean Basic and Applied Sciences, expressed his gratitude to the Chancellor for giving him opportunity of give details of his department.
