| |
C.7 |
A Faculty or College ofArts and Sciences |
| |
|
|
| |
7.1 |
In the vision of a future, 21st century, AKU which we presented
in Section VI of this report we said that a Faculty or College
of Arts and Sciences should be considered as one of its parts.
The reasons, briefly summarised, were : |
| |
|
|
| |
(1) |
the weaknesses in first-degree higher education in parts of
the developing world of particular interest to AKDN and the
Ismaili community; |
| |
|
|
| |
(2) |
a sense of need for a broader education for AKU's present
and future students in whatever field, and for many like them
in the Muslim world; |
| |
|
|
| |
(3) |
an appreciation that the contributions AKU can make to better
understanding and presentation of Islamic culture and civilisations
must be educational as well as scholarly; and |
| |
|
|
| |
(4) |
a judgement that more important results may be achieved in
the education of men and women for responsible careers through
the liberal arts than through professional studies alone. |
| |
|
|
| |
7.2 |
At a time when there is nearly universal concern, in both
rich and poor countries, over the educated unemployed and persistent
criticism is made of developing countries for spending too much
of their educational budgets on higher education, the contemplation
of an arts and science college as a component of AKU may raise
eyebrows. We think, however, that the need and demand for higher
education of better quality will persist and grow throughout
the world, and in the Muslim and developing countries in particular.
(We assume that AKU would only want to have an arts and sciences
college if it were of distinctive character and quality.) There
is ample evidence, familiar even to casual observers, on the
efforts parents make to send their children to the best schools
available at all levels and to offer them additional advantages
in tutoring and other help wherever possible. The competition
among graduates at every stage sharpens this search for education
that leads to better chances at the next level of education
or in the job market. We think this situation can only become
more accentuated in the future and that there will be a growing
demand for the first degree arts and science education that
AKU might someday provide. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
Equity requires that special educational advantages be paid
for by those who gain them (or by their families and supporters)
and hence that this sort of education be privatised in some
form. AKU is of course in a good position as a private university
to provide such superior education, but would not be comfortable
if its fees excluded all but the very well-to-do. Keeping the
doors open for those of large talent but small means, however,
requires resources from endowment or current sources that can
be very large. (The aim of leading American universities to
maintain need-blind admission policies in their undergraduate
colleges has fuelled massive fund-raising drives.) If only for
these resource reasons, we do not think an undergraduate liberal
arts college is something that AKU could or should develop quickly.
We conceive it should grow slowly out of initiatives and experiments
in other parts of AKU and the Aga Khan network of schools, in
ways we sketch in following paragraphs. |
| |
|
|
| |
7.3 |
Each of the reasons listed in 7.1 above for
contemplating the eventual establishment of a faculty or college
of liberal arts points toward transitional activities that may
lead to it. A lack of opportunities for the specially talented
in poor areas, such as Africa or Central Asia, stimulates ideas
on special programmes or institutions that may form a bridge
to higher education. In some instances these may be built around
or upon existing secondary schools; in other cases they may
be attached as a preparatory year or years to the university
(as once was fairly common in Africa). |
| |
|
|
| |
7.4 |
Such bridging or transitional programmes not only may serve
to rescue talent otherwise too far from recognition and opportunity;
they may also remedy the narrowness and weakness of preparation
that has concerned the Medical College faculty. We are less
well acquainted with the situation in secondary education across
Asia and Africa but we are aware of distress in AKES at the
thinness of the curriculum and the weak preparation it offers
for coping with the modern world. A preparatory year or more
before the regular Medical College curriculum begins has been
under discussion and we believe this is an initiative that ought
to be pursued. It may bring resistance from families facing
longer burdens of support; but the Medical College now has an
embarrassment of riches in candidates and should be able to
lose a considerable number of applicants without a detectable
decline in average quality. (Some provision of financial help
for exceptional but needy applicants would, of course, be required.)
|
| |
|
|
| |
7.5 |
The prospect of an Institute or Faculty, especially concerned
with Islam and it, civilisations opens exciting prospects of
a distinctive form of liberal arts education in AKU. As we have
conceived this way of AKU's fulfilling its mission as a Muslim
university, we have hoped it should have a Very widespread educational
impact, extending throtwil all of AKU itself, and reaching further
througli writings and example. Such a goal must take time. for
the development of courses and curricula, for writing and scholarship
that will guide and support them, and for experiments that will
not always succeed. An arts and science college in AKIJ ought
not emerge until it can have an original and appropriate Muslim
character. |
| |
|
|
| |
7.6 |
The case for liberal education versus more specialised professional
education seems to be strengthening with the rapidity of technological
change, the world-wide sweep of business competition, and the
intrusiveness of mass media. In a curious way, John Henry Cardinal
Newman', Idea of a University is becoming popular again.
even for the poorer countries. It has typically been said that
the demand for education in tte developing countries is a "derived
demand"' coming from the demand for a job. But if the link between
a particular form of education and fut n rv jobs is loosened
by change, the appeal of less evidently useful education grows,
even oil instrumental grounds. Stronger reasons for tlie indispensability
of liberal education now surely come from the need for capacities
to make On, myriad adjustments modern life requires; tbese are
capacities of intellectual, cultural and moral sorts that only
general education can provide. |
| |
|
|
| |
7.7 |
We have encountered strong aspirations for first-degree arts
and science education ill both Pakistan and East Africa. Indeed,
we have heard proposals that AKU ought to have colleges, or
branches of its college, in more than olle location in Pakistan.
While we have looked very sympathetically on East Africa's claims,
we have concluded that Pakistan must be trivell V priority.
Assembling the resources for a single AKU college will be a
demanding undertaking. Recognising the pressures for serving
different countries, we cannot exclude the possibility that
AKU may ultimately try to offer liberal arts in more than one
location, but only after a long preparatory period. |
| |
|
|
| |
7.8 |
We do not, in any case, see a Faculty or College of Arts and
Sciences emerging quickly in AKU. There will certainly be pressures
from parents and others for a quick start. Indeed, concern has
been expressed in the Commission that the popular appeal of
an AKU college might overwhelm developments we think more important
to fulfilment of its mission as a distinguished university for
the developing and Muslim worlds. But the likely course of development
we have sketched above, building on university preparatory programmes
at secondary schools, and a preliminary programme in the Faculty
of Health Sciences, suggest that AKU will be well into the next
century before it is fully launched in the liberal arts and
sciences. |
