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AKU'S DEVELOPMENT THUS FAR. ITS RELATIONS TO
THE REST OF THE AGA KHAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK AND TO THE INSTITUTE
OF ISMAILI STUDIES |
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Aga Khan University at Age Ten |
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When the Harvard Report was written, AKU was only beginning.
Now, as its celebrates its tenth anniversary it has had time
to become more than a vision. It has become a living institution,
with local addresses in a particular country, and behaving in
ways that are becoming characteristic. The Commission consists
in part of Trustees of this young AKU and does not easily take
a detached view of where the University now stands. But it has
sought to judge how the evolution of AKU thus far conforms to
the vision set for it and how ten years of life may invite changes
in that vision. |
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One must remember fundamentals first. In its short life thus
far, AKU has established itself as an autonomous institution
of integrity and quality. It has mobilised the resources
it has needed to operate as an independent private institution,
an achievement that the sober calculations of the MCC report
have impressively underscored; it has not been subject to governmental
and other outside interference; it has maintained the free intellectual
atmosphere without which there cannot be a proper university;
and it has given degrees that are recognised in Pakistan and
abroad. These are fundamentals and our observations on higher
education in many parts of the world confirm that they are still
matters not to be taken for granted. Reciting them quickly may
gloss over too easily the achievement they represent. They have
required great efforts and commitments : in the Chancellor's
steady vision; the support of the Jamat; the Trustees' guidance,
and the untiring efforts of Acting Rectors, Deans, the President,
faculty and staff. And more than fundamentals have been achieved
as AKU has won a prestigious and distinctive image. Abundant
applications, far in excess of possible admissions, confirm
the quality of education AKU has been offering and the honesty
of selection by merit in the admissions process is one of the
strongest evidences of the moral integrity of the institution. |
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In keeping with one of the passages from His Highness' Charter
Acceptance speech(quoted above in Section II of this report),
the School of Nursing and the Medical College were established
to meet perceived needs for educational programmes in developing
countries. The School of Nursing was directed to an evident
need in the dearth of nurses available for the new Aga Khan
Hospital, but also to the wider need to reduce the disparity
-much denounced by the World Bank and others -between the numbers
of trained nurses and doctors in Pakistan and other developing
countries. Still wider ambitions -to elevate the status of the
nursing profession and to improve opportunities for women -
were also present from the creation of this School. The Medical
College when it was originally conceived was less obviously
distinctive in character and objectives, though in quality it
aimed to remedy some of the notorious deficiencies prevalent
in Pakistani medical education. By the time it opened its doors
it had, notably under the stimulus of the 1981 Conference on
Hospitals and Primary Health Care, set a distinctive course
toward responding to the health care needs of developing countries
in its Community Health Sciences programme. It has established
programmes that have attracted international attention and support
and won the enthusiasm of the Medical Centre Committee in its
recent report. |
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The Institute for Educational Development was likewise established
in response to a perceived need, in this case to raise the quality
of education in the schools of Pakistan and elsewhere. Growing
out of a series of projects developed by the Aga Khan Foundation
and the planning of an Aga Khan Education Services Task Force,
its initial strategy has been to seek improvement through raising
the quality of teaching and the status of teachers. An innovative
approach through so-called Professional Development Centres
in "real" schools (not in a school or faculty of education)
has been adopted. IED is only in its first year but its opening
of professional opportunities for women, its methods and vigorous
leadership have already elicited much enthusiasm and brought
heavy importunings to take on other educational problems and
functions. |
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The Medical College began as an institution offering the first
medical degree and the School of Nursing began with a diploma
programme. There has been a tendency in both schools to move
toward more advanced levels. The Medical College has graduate
residency training for doctors and the basic science departments
would like to initiate graduate programmes. The School of Nursing
now offers a BScN in nursing and has been planning an MScN degree.
But both units remain strongly engaged in their initial commitment
to undergraduate and diploma education and there is as yet
no settled policy on the appropriate level at which the Faculty
of Health Sciences might concentrate its efforts. IED is
providing an MEd programme for master teachers, but a large
part of the instruction it offers is in nondegree post-professional
education. Since the Commission has devoted a great deal of
attention to the question of levels at which AKU may make its
greatest contribution, it has been concerned to understand how
AKU's choices thus far have been made, and how they may foreshadow
future choices. On the evidence thus far, it appears that AKU
will be responsive to needs at several levels, from diploma
or certificate level, through first degrees to graduate and
post-professional study. This flexible and pragmatic responsiveness
would be in keeping with the vision expressed by His Highness
in the Charter Acceptance speech. Our own views on the levels
at which the future AKU should concentrate have proven to be
complex, as the exposition in Sections VI and VII below will
show. |
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These beginnings of AKU in its first ten years have given
it commitments to particular fields and programmes in particular
places. It has been essential to the original aspirations of
the University that what has been done in these fields and places
should be well done, as we believe it has. But, as the Harvard
Report stressed. doing a good job with the students it actually
teaches and the patients it cares for is not enough to fulfil
AKU's aspirations to be a distinctive and important university.
AKU can only be a small institution in the vastness of the developing
and Muslim worlds which it aims to serve. Its pursuit of wider
consequences from what it does has thus far rested primarily
on its establishment of exemplary programmes and standards
that may be emulated by others. In these respects, it can properly
claim impressive achievements, both for the School of' Nursing
and the Medical College. They are looked to for models and ideas
and their staff are increasingly called upon for consultations
on educational and professional policies by the Pakistan
government and others. The Community Health Sciences department
of the Medical College has been invited to undertake more projects
than it can readily manage and in the brief life of IED similar
evidence of pressure to engage in pilot projects, reforms
and consultations have quickly appeared. |
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