FEECE-MUET

Monthly e-Newsletter
PATRONS: PATRONS Dr. B.S Chowdery, Dr. Aftab A.Memon, Dr. Mukhtiar A. Unar

V O LUME 1 , I SSUE 1 4 A U GUST 20 10

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Seminar on Time management and leadership skills Universities of Muslim World 1

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Seminar on Time Management and Leadership Skills

By Moiz Rehman Memon 08TL06

Seminar on Problem Based learning MUET shuttle system Photos of Month

Mehran Engineers Forum(M.E.F) organized a Seminar on Time Management and Leadership Skills at Prof. M. D. Makhdoom Hall, MUET on 6th March, 2010. The Seminar was addressed by the two resource persons: 1) Mr. Syed Tauha Hussain, a graduate in Electrical Engineering from N.E.D University, Karachi, presently working as an Electrical Engineer at Seimens.

THE F E E C E TE A M

Editor:
Dr. Fahim A. Umrani

General Coordinator:
Mr. Mohsin Siraj

Sub-Editor(s)

2) Mr. Wajahat Abbas, Principal Consultant, Techerz. The topic of Mr. Tauhas session was Effective Communication Skills which included the following aspects: The Communication Process. Ways of Communication. Barriers in Communications. How to overcome Barriers.

Mr. Saadullah Kalwar Ms. Bushra Shaikh Ms. Zunera Aziz

News Reporter(s)
Mr. Umair Mujtaba Mr. Salman Ahmed Mr. Moiz Rehman Mr. Kapal Dev

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The topic of Mr. Wajahats session was Career and Development which included the following aspects: Key Skills: Teamwork. Leadership. Attitude. Excellence. Technical Skills: Analytical Skills. Learning Curve. In the end, the worthy Registar of MUET, Dr. Tauha Hussain Ali praised the efforts of M.E.F for organizing such an informative and productive seminar. He also emphasized that these types of events should be organized, and assured his full support in organizing such events in future.

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Universities of Muslim world, find no place in modern world

By Mohammad Mohsin Siraj

niversity is an institution of

higher education and research. It assures the strong foundation for quality research and produces eminent researchers in any country. Ignorance of Higher education is egregious for any nation. Credibility in academic and research areas improves the society and human values and in return causes the growth and development of the country. Believing Muslim umma as being a nation and while thinking about the downfall of us, one obvious reason that appears in mind is the deficiency of Research and dearth of prominent Scientists among ourselves. The nation which, at times, had shown new dimensions in science and technology to world, now find no place for them in todays era. The medieval Madrasahs known as Jamiah in Arabic founded in the 9th century by Muslims are considered as the first degree awarding institutions of the world, where variety of different realm of research were addressed. The University of Al-Karaouine or Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university of the world. It was founded in 859 by none other than a woman, Princess Fatima ail-Fihri.

The first medical college was also believed to form during the reign of Abbasid Caliph AL-Mamum. Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 975 is also one of the oldest universities of world. The father of chemistry Geber Bin Hayan, founder of Algebra Al-Khwarizmi, pioneer of optics Ibn al-Haytham, Abu alQasim (Surgery), Ab Rayhn al-Brn (Indology and geodesy, first anthropologist), Ibn Khaldun (demography, cultural history and the social sciences) and many others have led the world in science. But now the time has gone into reverse, no doubt Muslim scientists still receive accolades from the world but the recent advancement has effaced their work. Today Muslim world numbers about 1.3-1.5 billion people that mean every fifth person of the world is Muslim. 57 Muslim countries are registered to OIC (Organization of Islamic conference), but unfortunately you will not find any prominent University from Muslim World, there is not a single university which ranks in top 200 universities of world.

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If we elaborate reasons for the dominance of American and European Universities today, we see that except from the high budget they receive from their government, the students and professors both possess alacrity and keenness for acquiring knowledge and have passion for new innovations. It makes them think creative and help them to carry their research. Their dedication and sincerity is the root of their success. You find bulk of international students and researchers from different third world countries in their universities. They provide attractive openings and opportunities to third world students in the form of different scholarships and aids like Fulbright, DAAD, Erasmus Mundus, Endeavour Awards, HSP Huygen etc. It not only brings together genius brains at their institutes but also helps them to establish a sound sophisticated research atmosphere among students. When we compare their attitude with our apathetic behavior towards higher education, one feels considerable differences between two. It is encouraging that there are many Muslims scholars busy in their endeavors in American and European Universities today, which shows we do have potential and acumen. But it is high time to establish centers of research and prestigious universities in our countries. Federation of the universities of the Islamic world FUIW under International Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture is working for the progress and advancement of higher education in Islamic world. Malaysia has established a comparatively better system for higher education. University of Malaysia and National University of Malaysia ranks in top 400 universities. In Pakistan, NUST is the only university which ranks in top 400. But after the emergence of Higher Education Commission, the standard of education has improved a lot and has taken a turn for the better. It is also encouraging knowing that Some of Saudi Arab Universities and Middle East universities are now affiliated with renowned American Universities and adopting their way of studies and providing scholarships for international students. King Fahad University KSA is one of the examples of such universities. Though I am not broaching a new subject for discussion but it is an effort to make ourselves rethink and reconsider our attitudes, as it is crystal clear that the progress of any nation is contingent upon Higher Education. The journey is on its way but its pace must match with the pace of time.

AN APOLOGY TO THE READERS...

We apologize to the readers that due to examinations and summer vacations we could not meet the goal of releasing the issue for the month of July. Thanks for reading and your support. Keep in touch with what's happening over FEECE! - Team FEECE-MUET e-Newsletter

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SEMINAR ON PROBLEM BASED LEARNING AT MUET

Lecture by Dr. DM Akbar Hussain

Dr D.M. Akbar Hussain from AALBORG University of Denmark delivered a seminar at MUET on Problem-Based Learning (PBL). He mentioned that many universities offering Engineering in EUROPE and USA have switched to PBL as one of the primary features of Problem-Based Learning is that it is student-centered. Studentcentered refers to learning opportunities that are relevant to the students, the goals of which are at least partly determined by the students themselves. This does not mean that the teacher abdicates his authority for making judgments regarding what might be important for students to learn; rather, this feature places partial and explicit responsibility on the students shoulders for their own learning. Creating assignments and activities that require student input presumably also increases the likelihood of students being motivated to learn. The context for learning in PBL is highly contextspecific. It serves to teach content by presenting the students with a real-world challenge similar to one they might encounter were they a practitioner of the discipline. Teaching content through skills is one of the primary distinguishing features of PBL. More commonly, instructors introduce students to teacher determined content via lecture and texts. After a specific amount of content is presented, students are tested on their understanding in a variety of ways. PBL, in contrast, is more inductive: students learn the content as they try to address a problem.

The problems in PBL are typically in the form of cases, narratives of complex, real-world challenges common to the discipline being studied. There is no right or wrong answer; rather, there are reasonable solutions based on application of knowledge and skills deemed necessary to address the issue. The solution therefore is partly dependent on the acquisition and comprehension of facts, but also based on the ability to think critically. What does critical thinking refer to? The phrase is often bandied about but seldom defined. For our purposes, critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information, as well as to apply that information appropriate to a given context. It is both critical and creative in that synthesis, in particular, requires the learner to take what information is known, reassemble it with information not known, and to derive a new body of knowledge. Note that were not necessarily asking students to create new knowledge in the way a practicing scholar does; instead, were asking students to create something that is at least new to them. (It is not uncommon, for even undergraduates to develop some pretty sophisticated and ingenious solutions.) The most common instructor role is to question the students about their learning process by asking meta-cognitive questions: How do you know that? What assumptions might you be making? These questions are meant to get students to become self-reflective about their learning processes, thus another primary feature of PBL is that it is process-centered more so than productcentered. This may seem contradictory as solving the problem is an important and critical aspect of PBLhence its name.

Prof Dr D.M. Akbar Hussain from AALBORG University of Denmark , Professor Dr AK Baloch, Dean FEECE, Prof Dr BS Chowdhry, Director IICT, Madam Farzana Rauf Abro, Faculty members and students MUET Jamshoro on the occasion of Key note lecture on Problem Based Learning by Visiting Professor Dr D.M. Akbar Hussain.

FEECEMUET.BLOGSPOT.COM

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MUET Shuttle System

By Kapal Dev Langhani 07ES60

It is true that shuttle system is becoming the serious problem in the MUET. This is surprisingly as most
people think that it is due to lake in leisure activities, but it is related to many other problems such as, restrictions of library & engaged computer labs. Let us take a detail look at the causes of this growing problem in MUET. One of the obvious reason for the increase in, is short of cultural and leisure activities which includes basketball, cricket volleyball, dancing, computer games, soccer, gymnastics. Another reason for the increase in, is rules of library like we cannot take any book inside for studying, this creates big problem for students to stay in university for full time. Engaged computer labs is also affecting above problem which entail that mostly classes are going on or few of students just waisting time with the computer by opening social networking websites. There are many effects of this fastest growing problem, shown by following picture,

By viewing above pictures one can easily understand what will be the result or what will be the effects. There may be several ways to rectify above problems. In my opinion most viable solution pertaining to this catastrophe are, quality of education, counseling support of MUET high officials etc. After grasping a complete picture and enlighten pros and cons of above problem, it is evident from above elucidation that students need to become aware of their responsibilities and MUET high officials should seriously consider a change in her policies, if this worst trend is not reverse, the problem of shuttle will become very severe.

Photos of Month
All Pakistan Tour

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