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Vice-Chancellor's View:
Looking Back and Ahead
The year is 1987 and the man, who is wedded to the cause of higher education, is
an academician par excellence. He is a person with a vision and works with a missionary
zeal to set up a university in the private sector which would serve as a model for
educational institutions that would follow in the footsteps of Greenwich University.
I am referring to none other than Dr Kamal Ahmed Khan, who is a titanic figure in
the history of the educational institution that he had established and nurtured
in its early years. No institution can afford to ignore its history. If we have
to look ahead, we have to look back first to avoid pitfalls and also to draw inspiration
from its successes. In the case of Greenwich University, its faculty and the back
up staff are motivated by the glorious examples of excellence set up by the founder
of the University. His vision and foresight have mapped the course for us from one
landmark to another.
We cannot but help recall what he said way back in 1996. “I envision this institution
to one day transform into a centre of excellence from where generations of future
Pakistanis – our children and our children’s children after them – will emerge as
ethical, fully empowered individuals – academically, intellectually and professionally
– becoming standard-bearers of our glorious march towards modernity, progress and
development, into the 21st century – a century which promises to be the epitome
of human endeavours of past millennia to usher in an era to peace and tranquillity
for all.” Only two years later Greenwich was exalted to the state of a university
by the Government of Sindh. Subsequently, Greenwich was given W-grade, which is
the highest for a university, by the Government of Pakistan.
When the institution was established in what has been the largest and commercially
the most important city of Pakistan, there was just one educational institution
and that was not enough to cater to the increasing number of students who wanted
to study and excel in business management. Greenwich came as a choice to students
aspiring to study what was, and still is, a discipline very much in demand for those
who want to achieve success in the corporate world. And when the demand for Information
Technology took a big leap, Greenwich was there to include the subject in its curriculum.
Today Greenwich offers exhaustive courses in Bachelors of Computer Science and Bachelors
of Information Technology.
The faculty of Management Sciences and Information Studies are dedicated to serving
as a bridge between the academia and the corporate world. The students gain a lot
from the rich experiences of the practitioners in related fields, when they join
the visiting faculty of Greenwich. The emphasis is on two-way communication, as
also on gaining work experience, which is why students who are not gainfully employed
in their respective fields are expected to have six to eight week internship.
For those who are already in service and are aspiring to do their Masters in Business
Administration there is an executive programme also. Then there are Pre-Master’s
and Master’s programs in Public Administration as well.
In 2006, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities was established in order
to cater to students who wanted to study liberal arts at both Bachelor’s and Master’s
levels. Departments of Economics, Education, English Language and Literature, International
Relations, Social Work and Sociology and Social Studies were set up.
Alive to the growing need for professionals in the ever expanding and diversifying
world of media in the age of globalisation, Greenwich set up a department of Mass
Communication and Media Studies. The first batch of students in this discipline
will get their Master’s degree in 2012.
In addition to all the above-mentioned programmes there are certificate and diploma
courses in a wide variety of subjects, ranging from Child Psychology and Community
Policing to Urban Planning and Town Planning.
No university that aspires to be a prestigious post-graduate and post-Masters educational
institution can afford to go without having facilities of doctoral programs. Greenwich
offers more than that. It promotes research in various academic disciplines by offering
MS, M Phil and PhD programs. The University encourages its faculty members to participate
and present their research papers at national and international seminars and conferences.
Apart from the house journal of the University titled G-Vision, Greenwich publishes
two biannual research journals – New Horizons: Research Journal Faculty of Social
Sciences and Journal of Business Strategies. The students also have the facility
of using a state of the art computer laboratory, which is adjacent to a well equipped
library where a number of professional journals are available for reference purposes.
The setting up of the GRDC (Greenwich Research and Development Centre) on the campus
is in line with the university’s stress on the quest and dissemination of knowledge
as also its emphasis on the creation of new knowledge. With an ambience that is
reminiscent of a First World university, the atmosphere in the centre is highly
conducive to research. One of GRDC’s future plans is to embark upon training in
the fields of Basic Research, Applied Research, Quantitative Research, Qualitative
Research, Health Services Research and Public Health Research, to mention only a
few.
GRDC has undertaken Data Mining and is in the process of building up a Data Warehouse
with the ultimate aim of developing GRDC branding as Greenwich Research & Consultancy.
In its quest to raising the standard of education and diversifying its parameters,
Greenwich University signed Memorandums of Understanding with two leading Malaysian
educational institutions – Universiti Malaysia Perlis and Limkokwing University
in February this year. The collaboration should be mutually beneficial and while
we are sure that we will stand to gain out of this arrangement we fervently hope
that our partners will also find it fruitful.
In conclusion, one can say that for a progressive and growing organization in any
field, more so in the case of an educational organization, resting on its laurels
is not the name of the game. The management and the faculty of Greenwich University,
for its part, will continue to raise the bar for itself.
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Messages from the Governance...
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