AN ADDRESS TO AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY 2003 CONVOCATION

Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, President of Aga Khan University

Bismillah-Ir-Rahman-Ir-Rahim.

The Chancellor, Your Highness the Aga Khan;
Honourable Chief Guest, Your Excellency the Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali;
Your Excellency the Governor of Sindh, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad;
Honourable Chief Minister of Sindh, Sardar Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar;
Honourable Ministers from Pakistan and Syria;
Chairman Saidullah Khan Dehlavi and members of the board of trustees;
Graduates and parents;
Members of the faculty;
Alumni of Aga Khan University;
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

Assalam-o-Alaikum.

On behalf of the University, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this, the 16th Convocation Ceremony of Aga Khan University.

This is a particularly happy day for us, as it has been three years since our Chancellor presided over this Convocation. It is also a special honour to welcome today to our University, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, His Excellency Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. While he is no stranger to AKU, this is the first visit, sir, as Prime Minister of Pakistan and for which we are very proud. Let me also extend a very warm welcome on behalf of us all, to His Excellency Dr. Ali Saad, the Minister of Education from the Syrian Arab Republic, a guest who is here at the invitation of our Chancellor.

It is reported that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) said, “He who issues forth in search for knowledge is in a state of struggle in the cause of Allah until he returns.”  The long tradition of learning in Islam invariably refers to scholarship as a struggle, not least because knowledge is an essential component of the divine will. Classical Muslim scholars believed in fact that Allah values the search for knowledge more than the results of that search.  Diligence and persistence in searching, as well as debate and engagement, can yield by steps, part of the infinite knowledge that belongs to Allah. Hence the pursuit of knowledge is an act of permanent worship: talab al-’ilm ‘ibada da’ima. That is the legacy which our graduates inherit today. And that is the ethos of learning that we ask them to turn to the service of their country and of the world at large.

But graduates permit me to remind you today that your achievements are a reflection of the support and upbringing by your families as well as the mentorship of your faculty, both of whom we also honour today.  

This morning, 60 graduates will receive their diplomas as registered nurses, building on the success of the University's first academic programme established in 1983. Also, we are proud to honour today, 52 graduates of the School of Nursing who will receive their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees. Of these 27 have completed the four-year generic bachelor's degree in nursing - the first such programme instituted in Pakistan.  And perhaps I may be forgiven for adding a special note of pride to the two graduates of Aga Khan University’s first class of Masters of Science in Nursing… again the first such programme in Pakistan. It would be most appropriate for me to remind most of us who are aware of this particular programme that had it not been for the persistence and I would say almost insistence of our Chancellor about the value of such a Master’s programme in developing career ladders and the leaders in the nursing field, I don’t think we would have had this programme and the graduates today. Our special thanks to our Chancellor for this encouragement.

Also this morning, eight graduates will receive their Masters in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, six will be awarded their Masters in Health Policy and Management and 79 will receive their Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery designation and 34 men and women will receive their Masters in Education from our Institute for Educational Development.

All of graduates today can take pride in the fact that they entered the University on a needs-blind basis, solely on merit, competed on merit and are graduating today on merit and merit alone. To facilitate the education of these meritorious students, 44% of our graduates received financial assistance on the basis of need.

But apart from these core qualities, these men and women are graduating today from a University markedly different from the one their predecessors graduated from just a few years ago.

• Many of you in the city of Karachi know AKU as mainly a hospital or a medical college or a school of nursing on Stadium Road.
  
  
• And you may also know that AKU has another campus in Karimabad, Karachi – our Institute for Educational Development, which operates three Professional Development Centres, in Karachi, Gilgit and Chitral.
  
  
• But what may not be as well known, is that AKU is rapidly becoming an international university in response to the mandate of its Charter, to establish teaching programmes “in Pakistan and abroad.”
  
  
• Under the guidance of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees, the University is now active in several parts of the world.  At the request of the regional Governments in East Africa, and with the assistance of the institutions within Aga Khan Development Network, AKU has already established nursing and teacher education programmes there with a current enrolment of over 350 students.  Senior faculty have been recruited and plans are ready for commencing Post Graduate Medical Education in East Africa early next year.  AKU is in the advanced stages of final accreditation by the authorities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Thus, we are making good headway towards the establishment of a permanent presence of the University in East Africa that will lead to the building of our own campuses there.
  
  
• Last year in Europe, the University established its Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London.  The goal of the Institute is to strengthen research and teaching in the heritage of Muslim societies in all their historic diversity.
  
  
• At the invitation of the governments of Syria and Afghanistan, the University is engaged in providing innovative programmes for capacity development and technical assistance to institutions there, for the development of teachers and nurses.
  
  
• Thus, twenty years after its founding, the academic quality, and the human resource capacity developed by Aga Khan University in Pakistan have enabled it to move beyond Pakistan to establish programmes on three continents, with 10 teaching sites spread over Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan, Syria and the United Kingdom. 

One might ask what internationalization means for a young University like ours. In becoming an international University, AKU remains what it was always intended to be: a small university of relevance and impact, and whose distinction is not in its size but in substance, quality and role model function.

Let me illustrate this by three striking examples of AKU’s approaches to relevance and impact:

• Last year our Institute for Educational Development held a series of five dialogues with the participation of stakeholders from the government and the private sector, on key policy issues in education in Pakistan. Recommendations stemming from the dialogues were acknowledged as an important contribution to educational policy development in Pakistan by government policy makers and the international development community.
  
  
• Another such case is the catalytic role of the University in the reform of the nursing and midwifery curriculum in Afghanistan. Whereas it took about ten years for the Pakistan Nursing Council and AKU to reform and modernize the nursing curricula in Pakistan, thanks to our Nursing School’s experience and credibility, the reform of the pre-Soviet era nursing and midwifery curriculum in Afghanistan was achieved in less than one year. This is also a credit to the leaders in our nursing programme but it is also much more importantly, a credit to the progressive approach of the Afghan Ministry of Health, and is particularly noteworthy in a country that has not graduated a female nurse in more than ten years.
  
  
• Yet another example of our growing emphasis on relevant research is the recent discovery by a group of our genetic researchers of a gene involved in the modulation of high blood pressure. This groundbreaking discovery, inshallah, will eventually contribute to designing better treatment for patients suffering from this particular form of hypertension.

But AKU engages in more than research and policy formulation to ensure relevance to Pakistan and the other countries we operate in.  Let me recall in this regard, our enduring attention to accessibility – through the needs-blind admission policy in all our educational programmes as well as extensive patient welfare support in our teaching hospital.  Care of a large number of needy and deserving patients is provided through the Hospital’s welfare endowment and the Hospital’s revenues. Many citizens also contribute handsomely to the programme through their Zakat.  Thus, on any given day, at least 25% of our general ward beds are occupied by patients on welfare support.

As part of our attention to relevance, and impact the University is presently broadening its academic remit to become a truly comprehensive university, not just one focussed on the Health Sciences and Educational Development.

Let me mention three new AKU initiatives in this regard.

First, Aga Khan University Examination Board was established this year to offer affordable, relevant and high quality secondary and higher secondary school examinations in Urdu and in English to public as well as private schools. I take this opportunity to thank through the Prime Minister the Government of Pakistan for its bold and encouraging support in establishing this first Examination Board in the private sector.  The University is also grateful to the United States Agency for International Development for its material support towards this endeavour.  Already a large number of schools and school systems have applied for registration with our Board.

The second and most ambitious new initiative that will make AKU truly comprehensive is our proposed Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Karachi. This Faculty will provide four years of relevant, general education of the highest quality at the undergraduate level.  In due course the Faculty also proposes to offer postgraduate and professional training, with the objective of developing leaders for the public, private and non-profit sectors.  Academic and physical planning is in the advanced stage, and Inshallah, we expect this Faculty to enrol its first cohort of students in 2007- 2008. 

Meanwhile, to cope with new academic and service programmes, our physical infrastructure has expanded significantly in the last five years.  In fact, in the past twelve months alone, new facilities worth over Rs. 1.2 billion or $20.5 million have developed on this campus. New physical facilities being inaugurated this afternoon include, the Khimji Building for cardiac care supported largely by the Khimji family of Canada and several Pakistani donors who contributed towards its equipment.  Three campus residences for professional women have been donated by the Rupani and Karimi families of the United States, and the Mevawalla family of Pakistan. Finally, the foundation of our new Oncology Services Building to house radiation therapy treatment will also be laid today. This facility is the result of an unprecedented demonstration of corporate and individual philanthropy from across the country and by many ethnic and religious communities, helping to build a stronger social sector and society in Pakistan.

May I on behalf of everyone at AKU convey our warmest appreciation to all these donors for their extraordinary generosity, and pray that Allah bless them with much Barakaat.

In concluding this address, may I recall that today across the world it is a time of trials and imbalances.  But I am reminded of the Chinese proverb, “When the winds of change are blowing, some people build windbreaks, while others erect windmills.”  The young history of our University testifies to our strengths in seizing the moment, building our windmills and taking advantage of the winds of opportunity. Winds that are not without direction, as the University continues to strengthen its commitment to serving the developing world and Muslim societies in meaningful and innovative ways.  

In accomplishing this endeavour, we need support from all who believe in the University and its mission… not least from you graduates who are now our alumni. You have a direct stake in the growth and distinction of your alma mater. I encourage you to remain engaged with us as the University continues along its exciting journey. The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time… and let us come together to face it one day at a time and to make a better world for tomorrow.

Thank you.