Aimed at keeping university teachers abreast with current trends, a professional development workshop for faculty members of Balochistan Universities successfully concluded on Friday at the Faculty Development Academy of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad.
The workshop was organized by Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences (IUCPSS) and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in support with National Testing Service (NTS) Pakistan and government of Balochistan. Speaker Balochistan Assembly, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo was the chief guest.
The main objectives of this master trainer workshop included keeping the university teachers abreast with current trends in knowledge disseminating in areas such as curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, micro-teaching and research methodology, academic writing, classroom management, communication and presentation skills. The workshop started on 24th August 2015 and 22 faculty members belonging to five public sector universities of Balochistan attended the workshop.
The participants interacted with Acting President of Pakistan and Chairman Senate, Senator Raza Rabbani who appreciated the efforts of inter university consortium and CIIT for undertake practical steps for promoting social sciences in Pakistan. They also met federal minister for Planning and Development Mr. Ahsan Iqbal.
Under the supervision of National Coordinator IUCPSS Murtaza Noor, the participants also prepared detailed short and long term plans for carrying out similar workshops and related activities in their respective universities.
Speaking on the occasion, Speaker Balochistan Assembly, Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo appreciated the efforts of the organizers for promoting higher education in Balochistan. He believed that faculty of the province would benefit from the workshop and would share the knowledge and techniques with their colleagues.. He added that as education is priority of government of the Balochistan, we would continue to benefit from the inter university consortium, CIIT and NTS in higher education sector. He also underlined the importance of inter provincial experience sharing and effective coordination in higher education sector to brining the youth of all the provinces closer to one another. He, on the behalf of government and people of Balochistan extended thanks for announcements of 50 PhD scholarships by CIIT, award of need based scholarships by NTS and reservation of seats for the students of Balochistan by inter university consortium at its member institutions.
Chairman Inter University Consortium and Vice Chancellor University of Haripur Dr. Nasser Ali Khan said that the consortium with its partner organizations would continue to work with Balochistan government and universities through faculty & student exchange and expertise sharing. He announced fee waiver for the students of Balochistan at Haripur University and other consortium member institutions.
Rector CIIT Islamabad, Dr. S.M Junaid Zaidi assured that they would continue to support such initiatives in future as well and every possible cooperation will be extended to government and youth of Balochistan for strengthening higher education and overcoming shortage of skilled human resource in Balochistan.
Sharing their opinions regarding the workshop and stay at Islamabad, the participants termed their experience very useful and appreciated the efforts of organizers and government of Balochistan for providing the opportunity. They suggested that such program should continue on permanent basis.
Earlier, Director Faculty Development Academy S.M Junaid shared the background objectives and proceedings of the workshop.
The speaker Balochistan Assembly also distributed certificates among the participants.