Gaps in management education： A case study of University of Management and Technology

This paper aims to identify the gaps in management education highlighted by 3 primary stakeholders： students, faculty and alumni. The study tries to address the issue of relevance and compatibility of management education and investigates areas of improvement perceived by respondents. The paper assumes that business departments of universities have to bring changes in learning strategies to meet the requirements of stakeholders. This research takes UMT （University of Management and Technology） as a case study and presents gaps in management education. Data are collected from all the 3 stakeholders： students, faculty and alumni of MBA （Master in Business Administration） program offered at UMT. The survey is administered using an exclusively-designed research instrument and the data set of 211 students, 55 faculty members and 145 alumni is analysed using appropriate statistical techniques. The management of business schools should develop an integrated and well-coordinated mechanism to share common vision and strategies among stakeholders. A need to revise current MBA curriculum is identified, which emphasizes on the development of different types of skills among MBAs to make the program compatible with the existing corporate sector. The universities dealing in management education are recommended to redesign their curriculum in a more integrated and coordinated way in anticipation with aspiration of the existing corporate sector, which would then help reduce the identified gaps among stakeholders. The management of business schools should have a continuous assessment mechanism incorporating the feed back of all stakeholders, particularly students, faculty and alumni. The paper makes a fruitful contribution to the existing academic literature through an empirical investigation in Pakistani environment. A critical discussion is carried out, and gaps in management education are highlighted, which may motivate management institutions to revise their curriculums.     

评点2009年巴基斯坦政府军对塔利班的清剿行动

2009年4月以来,巴基斯坦政府军对本国北部地区的塔利班武装展开了清剿行动,这些作战行动有着复杂的国际国内原因。巴基斯坦展开的作战行动短期效果明显,但从长远来看,巴基斯坦的反恐局势并不乐观。     

印巴分治原因探析

很多学者认为,印巴分治悲剧是英国政府一手造成的。如果从英国传统的“分而治之”政策对印度后来种族关系发展的影响来看,这一结论不无道理。但是,如果具体地考察战后英国和印度的局势、英国的利益要求、艾德礼政府对印度问题的态度及其为维护印度统一所作的努力、和平解决印度问题的可能性,人们就会发现,艾德礼政府并无分裂印度的主观动机,相反,印巴分治是国大党和穆斯林领袖为了党派和个人利益而置民族或国家利益于不顾造成的。印巴分治在很大程度上是印度政治领袖的选择。     

Higher education and women’s empowerment in Pakistan

This paper summarises the findings of a 2005 doctoral study by Malik which explored to what extent participation in higher education offers empowerment to women in Pakistan. A survey instrument was used to question female faculty members and female students from 10 public universities in Pakistan; 1290 students and 290 faculty members responded. Subsequently, semi‐structured interviews were held with 10 faculty members and 10 students. Respondents highlighted economic independence and an increased standing within family and society as the main benefits of higher education participation. A major finding is that participation in higher education enables women to impact on a number of discriminatory practices simultaneously and thereby effect change for the better. The main recommendation is that future educational strategies be developed with the aim of further promoting gender equality in all areas of education in Pakistan, but particularly with the aim of increasing female students’ participation in higher education.     

Between returns and respectability: parental attitudes towards girls’ education in rural Punjab,Pakistan

This article focuses upon perceptions of girls’ education in the family context within which decisions around children’s education and opportunities are made. The article presents a framework showing how parental attitudes to girls’ education are shaped by an objective logic framed by the notion of returns, relating to potential benefits of daughters’ education, and respectability, relating to girls’ modesty and threats that education may present to normative expectations for girls. Drawing upon data collected in 2011 in rural areas of the districts of Faisalabad (Jaranwala town) and Chiniot (Tehsil Chiniot) in the province of Punjab, the study highlights how assumptions around the liberating effects of education implicit in global education programmes fail to take into account cultural values around gender norms that are central to informing parental attitudes towards their daughters’ prospects for education.     

1971年巴基斯坦内战成因考察

关于1971年巴基斯坦内战的成因问题,国内外学者的观点主要有分裂说、"殖民剥削"说和内战说。然而,这三种观点都无法对巴基斯坦内战的真正原因给出令人信服的解析。因此,借用费尔南·布罗代尔的历史时段理论和S.N.艾森斯塔德的现代化视阈考察该问题是十分必要的。通过短时段的事件考察,造成巴基斯坦内战的近因是叶海亚.汗总统的决策不当引发现代化的崩溃;再借由中时段的局势梳理,巴基斯坦内战是其现代化进程中政局周期性震荡合乎逻辑的结果,即出现了一种代议制政府→政局动荡→军法管制政府→政局动荡周期性交替的局面;而透过长时段的结构分析,则不难看到巴基斯坦内战的背后隐含着发展中国家现代化所面临的共同困境:传统与现代化、宗教与民族主义的冲突和不兼容。     

Social Science Research in India

An analysis of 393 papers published by Indian social scientists and included in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) indicates that most of these papers are published in Indian journals. Some of the papers are directly related to problems faced by Indian society. A major share of the papers are in low impact journals and have a low citation rate. Anthropology, psychology and psychiatry are the strong areas in social science research in India.     

Teacher training intervention for early identification of common child mental health problems in Pakistan

School-based interventions involving teacher training programmes have been shown to benefit teachers’ ability to identify and manage child mental health problems in developed countries. However, very few studies have been conducted in low-income countries with limited specialist services. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the training programme on teachers’ knowledge and awareness. A total of 114 primary school teachers from five schools in Karachi participated in a two-day (10–12 hours) workshop to provide them with an understanding of common child mental health problems and train them in basic skills. Their pre- and post-training knowledge was evaluated through a rating scale and open-ended questions. Single tailed t-test, involving paired differences, was applied for participants’ scores. Pre-/post-training differences were statistically significant. The training sessions were associated with an improvement in teachers’ knowledge and awareness of various signs and symptoms of common child mental health problems. The greatest improvement was noted in response to strategies of managing difficult behaviours, as 61% of respondents were able to formulate appropriate behavioural management techniques after the training. In low-income developing countries like Pakistan, teachers should be trained in early-intervention programmes for the identification and school-based management of less complex emotional and behavioural problems. Such interventions can maximise the use of sparse mental health resources.     

Scaling up of Life Skills Based Education in Pakistan: a case study

Young people between the ages of 10 and 19 make up 23% of Pakistan's population. In Pakistan, young people face many challenges in terms of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues. These include early marriage and pregnancy, low use of contraception, use of unsafe abortion, lack of relevant information and poor knowledge about bodily development including puberty and menstruation, sexuality, reproduction and HIV. This paper examines the scale-up of a rights-based, life skills-based education programme during the period from 2004 until 2013, which included comprehensive education about SRH issues. The programme was introduced by Rutgers WPF Pakistan in a total of 1188 schools. Introduction and scale-up were made possible by a combination of attributes among the organisations leading the development of the programme and the users. The main challenge, which related to the conservative operating environment in which the programme was first introduced, was addressed through a multiplicity of media and advocacy activities in the community, among parents, and by involving teachers, school administrators, district education departments and Muslim scholars in the development and review of the curriculum. The scale-up of a comprehensive sexuality education programme that targets young people in a conservative Muslim country is possible when there is careful curriculum design and materials and approaches are developed in close collaboration with key stakeholders.     

Desa Informasi: The role of digital libraries in the preservation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge

Abstract

This paper talks about Desa Informasi (Information Village), an initiative to document local information resources at Petra Christian University through the implementation of an institutional repository (IR) system. The author argues that IRs have potential and an important role in the effort to preserve and disseminate indigenous knowledge. The author also describes the relationship between institutional repositories and digital libraries, that both are interchangeable terms. The paper also describes the impacts of the project to the campus community and the society, and how projects such as Desa Informasi are important especially for developing countries.