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MID-TERM REVIEW OF IBA STRATEGIC DIRECTION

1.This review covers the cumulative progress made in the academic years 2008-09 (although the strategy was approved in mid September 2008), 2009/10 and 2010/11. In all, twelve goals and 85 sub-goals are being continuously monitored by the Board of Governors (BoG) through Annual and Semi-Annual Implementation Status Reports. This review focuses on five major pillars of the Strategy: (a) Quality assurance and Academic Excellence; (b) Faculty Development; (c) Physical Infrastructure; (d) Technology up-gradation and (e) Community outreach. The bulk of the material presented in this report pertains to Academic Excellence and Faculty Development which form the cornerstone of an academic institution. A separate report on Resource Mobilization is being submitted.

I. QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Student Intake

2. The total number of student intake around 2000 (1500 full time + 500 part time) has not varied much although the composition has changed since 2010. By making 2 year work experience as mandatory for those seeking admission to M.B.A. full time program there has been a substantial decline in the number of incoming students into MBA. As a consequence of that the number of new students entering IBA in regular academic programs in 2010/11 has dropped to 553 compared to 635 in 2009/10. However, the introduction of Executive MBA (EMBA) programs in Banking & Finance, Corporate Sector and Public Sector over the week-ends brought in about 170 new students in 2010/11 compared to 70 in 2009/10. As Table I shows’ there has been a gradual upward movement in the number of new intakes if we take the whole picture of Regular and EMBA programs. If 2008-09 is taken as the baseline then the increase in the new intake two year later is quite substantial about 24 percent. This upsurge in part time MBAs and decline in full time MBAs is consistent with the world wide trends in Business Education. It is also pertinent to mention that the average tuition fee realized from EMBA students is 15 percent higher than that paid by the full time and evening students. So financially the decline in the full MBA enrolment is not a matter of concern.

Table I

STUDENT INTAKE

Regular Programs

EMBA

2008-09

566

2009-10

635

2010-11

553

170

Total

584

705

723

3. We have tried hard to maintain the quality of students and the standards of entry test are constantly tightened. The interview panel now includes an almunus in addition to the faculty members. Group discussion and English Essay do test their spoken and written communication skills. Those who get admitted are again asked to appear at English and Maths challenge exams. The unsuccessful candidates at these exams have to take remedial courses before they are allowed to enroll in the required English and Maths courses. These extra efforts have proved worth while because of the diverse background of the incoming students.

New MBA Program

4. The main features of the new MBA program introduced in 2010/11 can be summarized as follows:-

a) A minimum work experience of two years after undergraduate degree is required for admission. The automatic progression for BBA graduating class to MBA has been discontinued.

b) Pedagogical tools have been diversified and Case Study Method has been introduced to supplement other methods of teaching like Internships, home assignments, class presentations, term reports,

c) There is a separation between the faculty teaching MBA and BBA so that there is no possibility of over lap or duplication in the courses.

d) Each student in the 2^nd year is required to work on an Experiential Learning Project (ELP) in which he/she analyzes a real world problem faced by a company and makes recommendation to solve it.

e) The curriculum, course content and the number of electives offered have been significantly modified to align them with other leading Business Schools.

f) A non-credit course on Personal Effectiveness was made mandatory to develop the soft skills of students.

New BBA Program

5. After the introduction of MBA program a one year long effort was made to revamp and upgrade the quality of BBA program. An audit was carried out to examine the current status of the program and comparative analysis was made with other leading Business Schools. Focus groups of students, faculty, alumni, corporate recruiters were consulted and the views of an external panel of experts were sought.

6. The Academic Board approved the new BBA program that is to be offered beginning Fall 2011. The distinguishing features of this new program are:-

i) Foundation in Social Sciences, Humanities and Liberal Arts has been strengthened by increasing the number of courses in this area. At least eight courses have to be completed in this area.

ii) The menu of elective courses has been expanded, separated in two categories and the number of required elective courses has been increased.

iii) New majors in Human Resource Management and Entrepreneurship will be offered in addition to Marketing, Finance and MIS.

iv) A three credit hour Experiential Learning Project (ELP) has been made part of the curriculum.

v) Proficiency in any one of three foreign languages – Arabic, Chinese and French – has been made a condition of graduation.

vi) Personal effectiveness to develop soft skills is now a non-credit mandatory course.

vii) Every student will be required to complete eight weeks internship in Community Service as part of Responsible Citizen Initiative.

Restructuring of Computer Sciences Programs

7. IBA has historically been known for the quality of its Business Administration degrees. But little known fact is that the Faculty of Computer Sciences (FCS) is among the top rated schools in Pakistan. To leverage this, a new game plan was drawn to restructure the whole spectrum of offerings of the FCS. The BBA (MIS) and MBA (MIS) programs were found to have certain structural weaknesses due to which they were creating a weakened BBA/MBA brand as well as producing MIS graduates who were more interested in mainstream business subjects such as marketing and finance. For these reasons the separate BBA (MIS) and MBA (MIS) programs were merged into the BBA and MBA degree with a common induction. Students were subsequently allowed to choose their concentration areas which included marketing, finance, MIS among others.

8. To establish a name for IB in the field of Computer Sciences a rebranding exercise was undertaken with the following outcomes:

(a) The BCS program was converted to a BS (CS) program with significant improvements in the curriculum.

(b) The eligibility criteria for the BS (CS) were revised and the fee structure aligned with other competitors.

(c) CEOs and CIOs from leading technology companies including multinationals, software houses and large corporation with extensive IT operations wre invited to participate in the revision of the CS curriculum.

(d) The curriculum of the MS (CS) was further strengthened to include six specialization tracks that are emerging fields in the academia and industry.

9. The above steps have resulted in a significant increase in enrolment and improved placement opportunities. The total 2010/11 enrolment already doubled as compared to the 2009/10 enrolment. It is expected that enrolment will again double in Fall 2011 compared to the previous year. 50 percent of the 2011 graduating class of BS (CS) have already been placed within a month of their examination giving some hope that the market is recognizing the quality of our rebranded graduates.

Creation of Mathematical Sciences Department

10. A separate Department of Mathematical Sciences was created within the Faculty of Computer Science in 2010. The new Department acts as a common service department for both the Faculties of Computer Science and Business Administration in our attempts to strengthen the quantitative base of all the programs of the IBA.

Post-Graduate Degree Programs

11. M.S. (Economics) degree was launched at IBA in the beginning of Fall 2009 and has attracted a good quality crop. As the number of full time faculty members in Economics has risen to eight and visiting to four and a pipeline of qualified candidates was available because of the success of M.S. in Economics it has been decided to introduce Ph.d degree in Economics. The eligibility, content, coverage, rigour and examination methods of the program have been designed on the same standards as Ph.d programs offered by the best universities in the world.

Student Societies

12. Twenty seven student societies and an IBA Student Council (ISC) formed in 2009/10 for four broad purposes:-

1) An IBA-wide Student Council ISC replaced the old divisive model of separate student bodies for the Main Campus, City Campus, Computer Science Faculty and Evening Students.

2) Nine clubs for co-curricular activities such as Marketing, HR, Finance, Economics, Leadership, Infosys, Web, Entrepreneurship, Social Sciences to supplement class room learning.

3) Ten societies to promote extra-curricular activities through which students can nurture their talent in their area of personal interest such as Literature, Adventure, Sports, Music, Photography, Arts, Drama, etc.

4) Eight Service Societies such as Community Welfare, Placement, Media & Publications, alumni, Go Green, etc.

13. The students have the option to join any three societies while each enrolled student automatically becomes a member of the ISC. Elections are held for seven positions of office bearers after the membership drive is over. The office bearers act as the Managing Committee and prepare the Annual Business Plan of their activities, and the Annual Budget. Once the Business Plan and the budget are approved jointly at a meeting of the ISC and the Dean and Director, each society plans, organizes, and markets a mega event during the year on their own. The last two years’ experience has indeed been scintillating as we have witnessed a tremendous amount of self-confidence, team building and interpersonal skills, financial planning and organizing capabilities exhibited by almost 200 office bearers of the societies. The faculty members act as the Patron and are available for guidance and supervision. The decision making and all the work is carried out by the students themselves.

Student Exchange

14. International student exchange has been one of the most difficult areas for us in

the last three years. Despite many efforts with various schools the response has been very poor. Many attempts were aborted due to the news of killings emanating out of Karachi from time to time. Some modest success has been achieved as we have a one-way Exchange Program with the School of Management (SoM) at Tsinghua University in Beijing. About seven students spent one semester at SoM and came back very excited. A few other students attended International Conferences / Seminars / Model UN Sessions / Summer Programs in different parts of the world. Although the number of students who participated in international programs and events remains incomplete our estimates show that at least 32 students availed of various opportunities. Class visits to Dubai were a new feature of our learning pedagogy for making comparative analysis. One of the international student organizations AISEC which has an active chapter at IBA also sponsors students for overseas placement under its internship programs.

Executive MBA Programs

15. In response to the market demand for meeting the needs of continuing

professional education for in-service business and public executives, IBA launched the Executive MBA (EMBA) programs in 2009 focused on the following three groups:

1. Mid level Corporate Managers

2. Public Sector Executives

3. Banking and Financial Services Professionals

16. To keep the product differentiation with the Evening MBA programs while retaining the quality of intake, rigor in curriculum and pedagogy, relevance of the course offerings and standard of instruction it was decided that the EMBA classes will be scheduled over the weekends. A new clientele of Manager, Executives and Professionals, who are otherwise preoccupied in the evenings, or have to travel as part of their job requirements, has been able to avail of this opportunity to invest in themselves.

17. 250 participants have enrolled in this EMBA program since 2009/10 when it was launched in its present form. Unlike the regular programs there is flexibility built in the design and delivery. For example, we follow a trimester system for EMBA rather than a semester system. We hold entry tests three times a year and admission can take place at the beginning of any trimester.

18. Out of 107 organizations represented at the EMBA program, 48 are from the Corporate Sector, 32 from the Banking and Financial Services Industry, and 27 from the Public Sector organizations including the Government of Sindh, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Army, Government of Pakistan, etc. The classroom instruction is followed by each participant working on a real life problem facing their own employer in which they apply the knowledge, tools and skills to analyze and find a solution.

19. A Corporate Leaders Advisory Board (ICLAB) consisting of the Chief Executives from 18 top companies of Pakistan advises us on the various aspects of EMBA program. Leading practitioners from different sectors are also invited to assist us on the curriculum, course content, sequencing also.

Accreditation and Rankings

20. The Faculty of Computer Sciences won the Accreditation from the National Computing Education Accreditation Council (NCEAC) of HEC in 2009. The NCEAC awarded the highest rating of ‘W’ to the IBA BS (CS) program. Efforts are underway to achieve international accreditation with ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology).

21. IBA has applied for accreditation to AMDISA (Association of Management Development Institute of South Asia) under the South Asian Quality Assurance System (SAQS). A team of external peer reviewers who visited IBA in November 2010 have recommended favorably to SAQS Council for accreditation of IBA. The SAQS Council is expected to meet in next few months to make the final decision.

22. We have also submitted the data required by the HEC for the ranking of universities. IBA was, however, ranked among the bottom few by HEC in its 2010 ranking of research publications. This is a big challenge that we have to achieve a higher ranking in the field of research. Our efforts to be ranked by international agencies such as The Economist or Financial Times, London are unlikely to succeed because of our poor scores on international students, international faculty, number of faculty members with Ph.d degrees, research publications in international refereed journals and initial salaries of the graduating classes. It is quite obvious that we have a long way to go and work very hard before we can aspire to apply for ranking. The sights of the BoG and IBA Management have to be lowered in view of this unpleasant reality.

23. An IBA International Advisory Board (IAB) consisting of eight prominent Deans and Professors of Business from all over the world has met twice and advised us on a number of issues. Several members of the Board have visited IBA and interacted with the faculty, management, etc.

II. FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

24. One of the major constraints in our quest for Academic excellence remains the

scarcity of high caliber faculty. Some modest progress can be reported but the progress falls substantially short of our goals.

25. It was envisaged that we would add at least 10 new full time faculty members every year to reach 133 by 2013-14. This goal is unlikely to be met as the number has actually remained static. Since July 2008 we have recruited 26 new faculty members (four of these new recruits have resigned). Among the remaining 22, twelve hold Ph.d degrees and seven Master’s or professional degrees from foreign universities. These new recruits have, in fact, replaced those who have resigned in 2008 and 2009 or whose contracts were not renewed.

Table II

Strength of Faculty Members

	Full Time	Visiting
2008/09	70	119
2009/10	72
2010/11	76

26. The number of full time faculty with Ph.d degrees has, therefore, gone up from 22 in 2008/09 to 30 in 2010/11. Out of the initial stock, six resigned or retired leaving only 27. Since then, 14 new Ph.ds have either been recruited or returned after completing their studies.

28. Another change that can be observed by looking at Table III is the drastic fall in the number of teachers holding only local Master’s degree. This number which was almost 45 percent of the Full Time Faculty is now down to 20 percent. Consequently, the categories of those doing Ph.ds and foreign degree holders now claim almost 40 percent – up from 26 percent two years ago.

Table III

Faculty by Qualification

		2008/09		2009/10		2010/11
		Number	Share %	Number	Share %	Number	Share %
a.	Ph.d degree holders	22	29	20	28	30	39
b.	Doing Ph.ds	8	10	12	17	13	17
c.	Foreign Master’s or Professional degree holders	12	16	13	18	18	24
d.	Local Degrees	32	45	27	37	15	20
		76		72		76

29. Out of the ten sub-goals we had set under Faculty Development only three have been clearly met. The biggest progress has been made in the area of Training and Development which is described in the section below. The other two areas we have been successful are:

(a) Compensation Structure of the Faculty has been revised after a study of comparators and they are given higher scales compared to management staff.

(b) The category of Adjunct Faculty to attract distinguished practitioners has been created and four eminent persons have so far been appointed.

30. The following sub-goals were not met or partially met:

(a) No Pakistani was able to secure admission to the top 50 Business Schools and also clear our faculty evaluation. The coverage has now been expanded to 100 top Business Schools and Master’s leading to Ph.d has been accepted in lieu of direct admission to Ph.d.

(b) Tenure Track System on the lines of HEC has been introduced but nobody has so far applied.

(c) Faculty positions were offered to more than 200 IBA graduates who secured top 10 positions in order of merit during last 10 years. They were asked if they were willing to go for Ph.d studies fully finance by IBA. Nobody accepted the offer.

(d) Ph.d candidates finishing their thesis in overseas universities have been approached and only one candidate has responded positively.

(e) Only a few established and reputed faculty members from leading universities have visited IBA for short durations not for the whole semester.

(f) HEC has discontinued Foreign Faculty Program and therefore we didn’t get any foreign faculty.

(g) Returning HEC scholars were approached but the response was not that great.

Training and Development

31. The most effective instrument that we have used so far is investment in the development of existing faculty by exposing them to opportunities that will broaden their personal and professional horizons. Linkages have been established with leading universities such as NUS; Singapore; Babson College, Boston; International Management Training Academy, Slovenia and Kellogg Business School, Chicago to train our teachers and about a dozen faculty members have availed of the opportunities offered by these institutions.

32. The existing faculty members have been encouraged to engage in research, case studies, present papers at international conferences, symposia, seminars. A summary of the faculty members who have participated in local and foreign conferences / seminars / training courses is presented in Table IV below.

Table IV

Number of Faculty who participated at Foreign and Local Conferences / Seminars / Training
	2008		2009		2010
	Foreign	Local	Foreign	Local	Foreign	Local
Short Training / Courses	2	6	3	23	6	63
Conferences / Seminars / Forums	3	3	4	4	4	23
Professional Development	4	2	6	-	19	6
Academic Development	2	1	3	1	3	1
Post Doctoral Programs	-	-	-	-	1	-
Academic Alliance Programs	-	-	-	-	6	-
Total Number of Faculty	10	12	13	38	35	93

33. The summary shows that as there has been more than threefold jump in the persons who have been exposed to opportunities outside Pakistan. Upon their return those trained share their learning with their colleagues so that benefits are spread widely. We have noticed a visible change in their outlook and enthusiasm to apply what they have been able to absorb. This effort will be sustained despite the fact that the USAID has cancelled our $5 million grant.

Research, Case Studies and Publications

34. The Centre for Business and Economic Research (CBER) started functioning in 2011 – much delayed from its actual plan for a variety of reasons. The first contract that has been won by the CBER is from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to carry out a Consumer Confidence Survey of the households from all over the country. The pilot survey has been successfully completed and its funding would be used to construct a Consumer Confidence Index (CPI).

35. The Annual Report on ‘The State of Firm’ in Pakistan has also been delayed because of the hiccups in collecting the primary data from individual firms. Efforts are being made to allay the fears of the respondents so that they provide the requisite information.

36. A Case study unit has been established at IBA to act as the clearing house for facilitating case study method. Faculty members have been sent for training in case studies and foreign faculty members have been invited to teach our faculty members.

37. Incentive structure for promotion, increment and advancement has been realigned so that those who publish in high quality refereed journals or produce case studies will receive higher grading in their annual performance evaluation. Research funds have also been allocated in IBA’S budget for financing research studies and case studies.

38. Our six monthly journal ‘Business Review’ has now been place in ‘Y ‘ category of HEC approved journals. The Editorial Board has been expanded to include field experts from outside IBA.

39. One of the faculty members of FCS, Dr. Sajjad Haider, received the Endeavor Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and spent 5 months during Fall 2010 visiting the Centre for Quantum computation & Intelligent Systems (QCIS) at University of Technology, Sydney. As a result of this IBA now has a formal collaboration with University of Technology, Sydney and have a joint RoboCup Soccer Team. Dr. Haider, who is now also an Associate at the Faculty of Engineering and IT at UTS, also secured continuation of the Endeavor Scholarship in which his Ph.d student Saleha Raza will be spending Fall 2011 in UTS.

40. Joint collaborations and research publications in the area of Wireless and Sensor networks were also achieved with Tampere University of Technology, Finland and Dalhousie University, Canada, respectively. Additionally a joint research collaboration was established with the Centre of Excellence in Information Assurance, King Saud University.

41. The research output from the FCS faculty also rose to an all time high and about 30 international papers were published in journals and conference proceedings in 2010 resulting in about a 25 percent increase as compared to 2009. As these papers were not published in ISI indexed journals they were left out of the HEC rankings.

III. PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY UPGRADATION

42. The components of the strategy that have so far made the highest advance are

Modernization, up-gradation and remodeling of Physical Infrastructure facilities and I.C.T. infrastructure, facilities and Services up-gradation. The speed of implementation has picked up after a slow start although we still have a long way to go. The following table shows the path to acceleration in the capital expenditure that finances these two components.

Table V

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

Rs. billions

	Budget	Actual	Percentage Utilization
2007-08	434	33	8%
2008-09	601	172	29%
2009-10	1046	552	53%
2010-11	643	390	61%

43. It can be seen that the percentage utilization has made gradual incline from 8 percent of the actual budget to 61 percent. In absolute numbers the total capital expenditure incurred since 2008-09 was almost Rs.1.2 billion averaging about Rs.400 million per annum. Assuming that the expenditure level rises to Rs.600 million annual average in the next three years it is unlikely that we would be able to meet our spending target of Rs.3.4 billion by 2013-14.

44. The following buildings and facilities have been completed and commissioned for use:-

1. Renovated Academic Block (Adamjee Academic Centre) at the Main Campus.

2. Renovated Academic Block at the city Campus.

3. Auditorium, Main Campus.

4. Administration Block, city Campus (end July 2011)

5. Student Lounge and Canteen, City Campus.

6. Up-gradation of classrooms to FCS Buildings.

7. Renovated Boys Hostel, Main Campus.

8. Multipurpose Building, Main Campus.

9. Extension of Girls Hostel, Main Campus.

10. Power Supply System.

11. Temporary library ground floor, Main Campus.

45. The new buildings under construction or facilities being laid presently are:-

1. CED Aman Building, Main Campus.

2. New Academic Building (Razzak Tabba Building) Main Campus.

3. New Boys Hostel, Main Campus.

4. Laying of water pipeline and construction of water tanks.

46. The existing facilities that are under renovation or up-gradation are:-

1. FDCS Building Extension, City Campus.

2. Direct water supply line and water tanks.

3. Load extension of power supply.

4. Library Building, Main Campus.

47. Out of the projected expenditure of Rs.3.4 billion on physical infrastructure projects we have commitments of Rs.1.6 billion so far from private donors and foundations, Rs.200 million from the HEC and Rs.60 million from the Prime Minister’s Fund. This leaves a balance of Rs.1.5 billion to be further raised in the next 2 years. This poses a serious challenge for all of us – the Board as well as the Management. A detailed report on our Resource Mobilization efforts will be submitted to the Board separately for discussion on this important issue.

ICT Up-gradation

48. Most of the hardware and equipment such as Servers, Storage devices, IT Security packages, have been acquired. New Networking infrastructure has been installed replacing the legacy switches. State of the art wireless network is functioning well and providing uninterrupted connectivity to the users. IP Telephony has facilitated connection between the two campuses and the service has been satisfactory from the users’ perspective. The two campuses are now integrated for purpose of voice communication.

49. One of the noteworthy achievements has been the successful implementation of ERP Campus Management Solution. Nine modules are now functional and the students have been registering online since Spring 2001 semester. IBA has the distinction of becoming the only university in Pakistan which is using online course registration facility of People Soft.

50. The areas which have been disappointing and where the progress has been unsatisfactory are the setting up of the Data Centers at the two campuses which will house the servers and connect them to the rest of the buildings. Lack of in-house expertise and the delays in construction of the buildings where these servers and equipment were to be installed have created this problem. The risk of the expensive servers and hardware getting damaged or affected due to prolonged storage is causing serious concern. Outside expertise has recently been hired for setting up the Data Centre. In the meanwhile, secure and safe space has been built to keep the unpacked equipment in controlled temperature environment. Efforts have been redouble to get the Data Centers completed and fully operational expeditiously.

IV. COMMUNITY OUTREACH

National Talent and Sindh Talent Hunt Programs (NTHP; STHP)

51. The most personally satisfying aspect of my job has been to sheppard the NTHP and STHP programs under which we bring approximately 50 to 60 talented students from backward districts of Pakistan for a two month orientation program at IBA. They are given classes, coaching and individual tutorials for preparing them to appear at our entry test. Last year only 11 students out of 47 cleared the IBA entry tests and got admission to BBA/BS degree programs. They are receiving full financing for the next four years. This year as many as 28 students out of 73 who appeared cleared the entry tests and have qualified for admission to BBA/BS programs. The marked progress in just one year period is indeed overwhelming.

Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED)

52. The building for CED is under construction and is likely to be ready next year. With the aid of three faculty members who were trained at Babson and newly recruited Academic Director we are starting BBA major in Entrepreneurship program in Fall 2011. The incoming students have been given the choice to opt for major in Entrepreneurship and the response has not been too bad. It must be admitted that the unanticipated cancellation of USAID grant for CED has made our previous plans redundant and upset our time lines and deliverables. We are still keen to maintain our ties with Babson and have entered into negotiations for exploring alternative ways to keep the affiliation of CED with Babson intact.

Centre for Executive Education (CEE)

53. The CEE has been engaged in two types of short duration Executive Courses (a) open and (b) customized. There has been a breakthrough in the customized courses as a few large companies have come back for repeat courses. But the number is still quite low. Attempts to establish partnership with INSEAD, Indian School of Business, University of Maryland are underway but have not evinced much enthusiasm compared to their and other top schools pro-active and aggressive stance vis-à-vis the Indian Business Schools. Our attempts to revitalize CEE have only been partially met and there is a long way to go for optimum utilization of CEE as a useful service to the corporate, non-profit and public sector.

Responsible Citizen Initiative

54. Many IBA students have been engaged in some form of community service on a sporadic and voluntary basis. It was felt that their awareness and exposure to the less well-to-do and marginalized segments of the society was hazy and limited. In parallel with the compulsory summer internship with business firms it has now been decided that every student will spend at least eight weeks working with non-profit and welfare organizations that are actively engaged in serving the poor. A list of well-established and reputed organizations has been prepared with which these students will be attached. They will have to share their learning with their fellow students and describe the ways they will continue their engagement in future.