Journey in progression

UZMA ALEEM talks to Prof. Dr. Bushra Mateen, VC of LCWU about current standards of higher education in Pakistan

Bertrand Russell says, “No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he himself believes to be of value.”
Prof. Dr. Bushra Muteen, Vice Chancellor of Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, has been in the field of education for more than 40 years. She worked hard in the development of Pakistan’s largest women university while promoting the culture of research and introducing non conventional subjects for young women of Pakistan.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday Plus she discussed the working of LCWU and current standards of higher education in Pakistan.

“It is a matter of pride for me that I am among the alumni of Lahore College for Women University. This institution gave eminent women to the nation. “It is an independent women’s University in Lahore, founded as a women’s college in 1922. It is one of the oldest institutions of Pakistan. The University has approximately 7000 students and a teaching faculty of more than 330 members. It admits students at the intermediate, BS, Master’s and Ph.D. level. Established in May 1922 as an Intermediate residential college and affiliated with the University of the Punjab, it was housed in a building on Hall Road, Lahore, with strength of 60 students, 25 of whom were boarders and 13 staff members and then the progress flourished with full boom,” Dr Mateen explained.
Since the establishment of Lahore College for Women University, in September 2002, the University has tried its level best for improvement in Higher Education. MoU with various national industries and linkages with foreign universities have been established in the field of Pharmacy, Electronics, Environmental Science, Fine Arts, Economics and Mass Communication.
“Actually we can flourish the culture of research by linking Pakistani universities with the renowned foreign universities. In this direction we have taken steps like LCWU has academic linkages with Imperial College of London, Queen Mary College London, Asian Institute of Technology, University of Portsmith and three renowned Japanese universities,” Dr. Mateen elucidated.
While talking about her career she said that the first job of her professional career was in PCSIR. After spending five years she was appointed as adhoc lecturer on March 13, 1968. Thus began her journey of imparting knowledge and while realizing her strength of teaching and learning she decided to proceed in the profession of teaching and research, now people know her a successful VC of an autonomous public sector University.
She received her MSC. degree in chemistry at Punjab University Lahore and got Ph.D. from Queen Mary, University of London.
Over fourteen of Dr. Mateen’s research publications have been published in both national and international journals. She had been teaching Master’s level organic chemistry, biochemistry and environmental chemistry.
Dr. Mateen has been appointed as ISESCO/UNESCO chair for women in science in the Asian region in Lahore College for Women University on Dec 18, 2004.
LCWU offers 4 years BS degree course for 26 subjects and Ph.D in 12 subjects. While talking about the prospects of higher education and research in Pakistan she said that there must not be any budget cut down of higher education as higher education and research pave the way for the development of intelligentsia of a country. 16 teachers of LCWU are studying abroad but now we are facing constraints because of recent cut in the budget of higher education. Moreover the cut in the budget for the development of universities has also disturbed the construction of new blocks of university,” she explained.
It is normally considered that women are good only in arts, fine arts and literature etc but the young women studying at LCWU proved that they are capable of exploring the unconventional fields of commerce, IT, Business Administration, Media Studies and Pharmacy.
“Our pharmacy students are capable of producing the medicines that are extremely expensive when purchased from multi national companies. It’s a great achievement for LCWU that young women from our university are contributing a lot in the the field of pharmacy in Pakistan” Dr. Mateen maintained.
Dr. Mateen said that LCWU had become a platform for exploring new ideas in the field of education and development.
“We have introduced new subjects like hotel management, catering and boutique management. Course of B.Sc engineering is quite popular among the young students.
Expansion of LCWU is on priority. We are in constant contact with government of Punjab on this issue. The sub campus of Jhang is growing institute.
While talking about her journey and many decades of struggle she said, she was satisfied with whatever she had achieved and imparted. This varsity gave eminent women to nation like Begum Masood Sadiq, Akram Khatoon, Kishwar Naheed, Saleema Hashmi, Riffat Hassan and Samina Khalid Ghurki, this list is endless. “One must be proud of her affiliation with this great institution,” the vice chancellor was of the view.