AKU Special Lecture Series

“A university must be prepared to take on new challenges and, by the same token, governments, foundations and private benefactors should support the university’s aspirations,” Professor Haroon Ahmed said in his opening remarks at a Special Lecture Series programme by Aga Khan University in AKU Auditorium on Thursday.

Professor Emeritus of Microelectronics at Cambridge University and Master of the Corpus Christi College, Professor Haroon Ahmed examined the factors that led to the success of Cambridge as a university in his discourse titled “Newton to DNA – 800 years of a great university: Are there lessons for today’s universities?”

The eminent speaker said that a university cannot exist in isolation from changes in the social and economic conditions of its constituency, and illustrated with examples how the stimulus from a benefactor can enable a centre of learning to contribute to the national and global development. He cited the example of rich industrialist William Cavendish who gifted a laboratory to Cambridge for the study of experimental physics based on heat, light and sound. Reminding the audience that the Cavendish Laboratory went on to become the greatest centre of scientific discovery in physics, Professor Haroon emphasised that “basic scientific research which transformed society arose out of a benefactor’s support of the university, and even today, Cambridge relies heavily on the generosity of benefactors to enable pioneering research to be undertaken.”

He repeatedly stressed the importance of interdisciplinary research saying, “When scientists can interact across disciplines, this sometimes creates the opportunity of obtaining outstanding results which are impossible to obtain in a specialised research laboratory”. He further added that the specialisation of today was not the norm in the past and that we must question and reassess syllabi as time and circumstances change.

He also emphasised the importance of an environment of inspiration and said that a great university is great because of its alumni. “Excellence breeds excellence and once one has a core of achievement in a university, the rest will follow, provided an environment is maintained that is conducive to scholarship and learning.” He cited the example of the third Cavendish Professor, JJ Thomson, the discoverer of the electron who inspired all around him so that no less than seven of his students and research assistants also won Nobel Prizes.

Professor Ahmed went on to explain the interactive education system being followed in Cambridge and informed the audience about the new role of universities that has emerged in the modern world in which business and wealth creation have acquired significance. He stated that graduates of high quality are now educated for the needs of high technology industry and provide the manpower and create new companies with their ideas, inventions and discoveries. “Google, out of Stanford University, is the latest to make its mark,” he said. The speaker, in particular noted the significant role played by women at Cambridge over the centuries though women were formally recognised only after 1947, when the University started conferring them with degrees. ‘Today the position of women is such that the vice chancellor is a woman,” Professor Ahmed informed the audience.

Elaborating the concept of “Education linked to Employment”, Professor Haroon Ahmed said that “the Cambridge Phenomenon has become a two-way process. The enduring fame of the university and the opportunity of recruiting high quality manpower have attracted high-tech industry to Cambridge city.”

However, he was quick to acknowledge the questions that arise from the transition of university as a centre for pure knowledge to a platform for business and wealth creation. “Whether a nation state should encourage universities to offer a wide range of subjects and concentrate on scholarship in the pure pursuit of knowledge, or establish specialised Institutes of Technology to concentrate on the subjects that lend themselves to wealth creation? Perhaps the only answer is to maintain two parallel streams of higher education, if national resources permit,” he concluded.

Earlier in the welcome address Mr. Shams Kassim-Lakha H.I, S.I, President AKU, while introducing the eminent professor, explained the background of the Special Lecture Series which is part of AKU’s multidisciplinary and broad-based approach to education that aims to enrich students’ understanding of the humanities and social sciences. Mr. Kassim-Lakha said that the general public, along with the students and faculty of AKU, also benefits from this one-to-one interaction with scholars and other personalities of national and international repute.

AKU’s Special Lecture Series programme, which started six years ago, has so far organised lectures by prestigious speakers such as His Royal Highness Prince Hasan of Jordan; the historian Stanley Wolpert; Zia Mohyeddine; Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan, former foreign minister of Pakistan and the former Chairman of the AKU Board of Trustees; Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Maliha Lodhi; and Dr Carl Amrhein, Provost and Vice President Academics, University of Alberta, Canada.