V O LUME 1 , I SSUE 1 4

FEECE-MUET A U GUST 20 10

Monthly e-Newsletter
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Seminar on Time 1
PATRONS:
PATRONS Dr. B.S Chowdery, Dr. Aftab A.Memon, Dr. Mukhtiar A. Unar management and
leadership skills
Universities of 2
Muslim World
Seminar on Problem 2
Seminar on Time Management Based learning

and Leadership Skills MUET shuttle system 3

Photos of Month 5
By Moiz Rehman Memon 08TL06

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
F E E C E TE A M

The Seminar was addressed by the two resource persons: Editor:

Dr. Fahim A. Umrani
1) Mr. Syed Tauha Hussain, a graduate in Electrical Engineering
from General
N.E.D University, Karachi, presently working as an Electrical Coordinator:
Engineer Mr. Mohsin Siraj

at Seimens.
Sub-Editor(s)
Mr. Saadullah Kalwar
2) Mr. Wajahat Abbas, Principal Consultant, Techerz. Ms. Bushra Shaikh
Ms. Zunera Aziz
The topic of Mr. Tauha’s session was “Effective Communica-
tion News Reporter(s)
Skills” which included the following aspects: Mr. Umair Mujtaba

The Communication Process. Mr. Salman Ahmed

Mr. Moiz Rehman
Ways of Communication.
Mr. Kapal Dev
Barriers in Communications.
How to overcome Barriers.
P AGE 2 V O LUME 1 , I SSUE 1 4

The topic of Mr. Wajahat’s 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.
F EEC E-M U E T
Universities of Muslim world, find no place in
modern world
By Mohammad Mohsin Siraj
U 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 aca-
demic and research areas improves the soci-
ety 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 down-
fall of us, one obvious reason that appears in
mind is the deficiency of Research and
dearth of prominent Scientists among our-
selves. The nation which, at times, had
shown new dimensions in science and tech-
nology to world, now find no place for them
in today’s era. The medieval Madrasahs
known as Jami’ah 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, Mo-
rocco 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.
P AGE 3
The first medical college was also
believed to form during the reign of
Abbasid Caliph AL-Ma’mum. Al-Azhar Uni-
versity, 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 al-
Qasim (Surgery), Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
(Indology and geodesy, first anthropolo-
gist), 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 promi-
nent University from Muslim World, there
is not a single university which ranks in
top 200 universities of world.
 F EEC E-M U E T P AGE 4

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 profes-
sors both possess alacrity and keenness for acquiring knowledge and have passion for new innova-
tions. It makes them think creative and help them to carry their research. Their dedication and sin-
cerity is the root of their success. You find bulk of international students and researchers from differ-
ent 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 insti-
tutes 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 po-
tential 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 Edu-
cation 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 uni-
versities.
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
 F EEC E-M U E T
SEMINAR ON PROBLEM BASED LEARNING
AT MUET
Lecture by Dr. DM Akbar Hussain
Dr D.M. Akbar Hussain from AALBORG Univer-
sity 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 Learn-
ing is that it is student-centered. “Student-
centered” 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 judg-
ments regarding what might be important for
students to learn; rather, this feature places
partial and explicit responsibility on the stu-
dents’ shoulders for their own learning. Creat-
ing assignments and activities that require stu-
dent input presumably also increases the likeli-
hood of students being motivated to learn.
The context for learning in PBL is highly context-
specific. It serves to teach content by present-
ing 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 distinguish-
ing features of PBL. More commonly, instruc-
tors 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: stu-
dents learn the content as they try to address a
problem.
P AGE 5
The “problems” in PBL are typically in the
form of “cases”, narratives of complex, real-world
challenges common to the discipline being stud-
ied. 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 depend-
ent 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 pur-
poses, critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze,
synthesize, and evaluate information, as well as to
apply that information appropriate to a given con-
text. It is both critical and creative in that synthesis,
in particular, requires the learner to take what infor-
mation is known, reassemble it with information not
known, and to derive a new body of knowl-
edge. Note that we’re not necessarily asking stu-
dents to create new knowledge in the way a practic-
ing scholar does; instead, we’re 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 mak-
ing?” These questions are meant to get students to
become self-reflective about their learning proc-
esses, thus another primary feature of PBL is that it
is process-centered more so than product-
centered. This may seem contradictory as “solving”
the problem is an important and critical aspect of
PBL—hence 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 stu-
dents MUET Jamshoro on the occasion of Key note lecture on “Problem Based Learning” by Visit-
ing Professor Dr D.M. Akbar Hussain.

FEECEMUET.BLOGSPOT.COM
 F EEC E-M U E T P AGE 7

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 bas-
ketball, 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 stu-
dents to stay in university for full time. Engaged computer labs is also affecting above problem which en-
tail 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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