SCHOOLS AT IBA HERALD A NEW ERA

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dr S Akbar Zaidi

On 1 January 2021, the IBA Karachi announced the establishment of three schools, namely the School of Business Studies (SBS), the School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS), and the School of Mathematics and Computer Science (SMCS), each with its own Dean. This new structure at the IBA heralds a new look for Pakistan's premier institution of higher learning, teaching and academic excellence. Each School will be autonomous and independent and devise its own operational mechanisms, closely attuned to the IBA's strategy and vision established over six decades of a stellar history.

The setting up of the Schools has been undertaken in alignment with international standards and best practices keeping in view the diversity of the programmes, courses and the IBA's expanding student body, already around 5,000 strong. For us at the IBA, this is an important development in the way we want to envisage the IBA in the coming decades with a specialized focus, increased output focusing on enhanced quality, offering many new programmes and courses, all in a rigorous academic environment.

Through these new innovative Schools, the IBA will continue to raise its academic standards and make it a place where students and faculty can experience the joy of learning and achieve goals which allow them to excel in the world in the years ahead.

JOURNEY OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

The IBA set on its journey of excellence in 1955 under the guidance of reputed scholars from the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California. Over the years, the IBA has evolved from a Business School into an institution offering interdisciplinary programmes at undergraduate and post graduate level. Currently, the IBA offers 18 degree programmes and boasts a network of more than 14,000 alumni spread across the globe.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY

Diversity and inclusivity has become the cornerstone of the IBA's foundation during the last decade. One of the first Higher Education Institutions to launch a diversity initiative, the National Talent Hunt Programme, the IBA has changed the lives of thousands of financially challenged but talented students from Karachi to Khyber. Additionally, the sustainable financial assistance programme with the aid of donors, allows students from different socioeconomic groups and geographical regions access to quality education. A quarter of the IBA's student population is presently receiving financial assistance.

THE IBA EXPERIENCE

Life at IBA is highly competitive, fast-paced, and turns novices into street-smart, tough and seasoned professionals. We manage this through a mélange of academic rigour in classrooms and extra-curricular pursuits overseen by 20-plus students' societies for sports, creative and literary activities.

Moreover, around 500 hostel residents from all corners of Pakistan, ensconced in IBA's comfortable facilities, add vitality and dynamism to the boisterous milieu.

DIGITAL IBA

Cutting edge digital technologies are enabling radically new ways to deliver value to our strategic direction. The IBA's technological footprint -- Digital IBA -- will be an agent of change within the IBA targeting a change of thinking and doing things, and will be a complete paradigm shift. Digital IBA will not limit itself to the IBA, but in a very short time, expand into different aspects of our governance/educational sector and beyond. Through the Office of the Registrar, the IBA Karachi has embarked upon the journey of transforming its academic and non-academic business processes into innovative systems and provide excellent support services aligned with changing needs and expectations.

HARBORING CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH

The Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) is the home of research at the IBA where four centers along with academicians dedicate themselves towards multidisciplinary research through local and international collaboration.

The IBA also has its official research journal, the Business Review, an international peer-reviewed biannual journal, which publishes refereed papers on existing and trending topics of business and social sciences.

Spiraling enrollment statistics from 2016-20

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Addition of new degree programmes from 2010-20

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  • 2010
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SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES (SBS)

Cultivating thought leaders

Since its inception, the IBA Karachi has built a strong reputation for being the leading Business School in Pakistan, and to stay ahead, we keep evolving to the needs of society. With the establishment of the School of Business Studies (SBS), we intend to further expand our programmes with transformative curricula and provide students with an enriching learning experience with regular access to industry leaders. At the SBS, we are committed to preparing innovative leaders who will add value to their stakeholders and society at large. The school has a faculty of high academic calibre, of which 30 faculty members hold PhDs.

Dr. Wajid Hussain Rizvi

The IBA Karachi has ingrained its mark in the history of Pakistan through its strong alumni network – making it a rich tradition of the IBA. As Dean of the School of Business Studies (SBS), I feel privileged and honoured to lead the School which is on a trajectory of nurturing many more graduates who will leave their mark around the world in all walks of life.

We live in an era of disruptions, where conventional methods of teaching, research and industry best practices are becoming redundant; for instance, machine learning, big data and specific skill sets to use such data are redefining conceptual and practical business boundaries.

Globally and locally, such disruptions are pressing business schools to engage in thoughtful leadership and demand agility to stay relevant. The establishment of the Neuro-marketing laboratory at the IBA-SBS is a testimony of agility, entrenched with current and emerging technology.

I envisage the SBS as a vibrant place where faculty members come with a purpose and students come with curiosity to decipher the purpose, which is to achieve academic excellence and social impact through creativity, integrity and teamwork. The SBS will actively pursue international academic collaborations with top business schools which will create exchange opportunities for students, as well as faculty members.

The creation of the SBS is not a mere change of name, but a change in academic governance structures and strategic direction. The new leadership will guard and preserve its DNA so that the brand equity of IBA Karachi reflects through SBS. The focus of the School will be on teaching effectiveness, quality research output, and international accreditations. The innovation, entrepreneurial mind set and commercialization will remain at the heart of the process where faculty, students and corporate leaders engage in a purposeful manner to create unique constellations to solve local and global challenges.

OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENTS

Department of Accounting and Law

The programmes offered at the department equip the students with top-notch conceptual and technical accounting skills required to succeed in today's chaotic job market. The department focuses on imparting knowledge about the functioning of private, public, and not-for-profit organizations in a global environment and help students develop an understanding of the application of financial and managerial accounting. Visit website

Department of Finance

The Department offers a variety of courses to hone problem-solving skills in students and assist them in learning how to make the best decisions about raising and using resources under risk. The courses provide the students a solid theoretical and working knowledge of finance in a global context and offer them a unique opportunity to gain specialized knowledge in the field through core courses in finance. MS-Finance | MS-IBF

Department of Management

With an emphasis on preparing students for quality research and analysis in the field of management, the Department endeavours to impart theoretical knowledge in the specialized areas of strategy and organization, operations management, and entrepreneurship. Visit website

Department of Marketing

At the Department, the students are propelled on a journey from the basic level to the highest conceptual areas and philosophies of marketing. Foreign and local cases are used extensively in the classroom learning experience to inculcate effective decision-making in marketing matters. View Faculty

Faculty

Our full-time faculty members remain abreast with the prevalent business environment and work in tandem with the industry to churn out ground-breaking research and local case studies. The continual real-world exposure helps them develop course content that addresses the current and future needs of businesses. To this exceptional group of academics, we add practitioners, who as our visiting faculty members, employ a pedagogical methodology based on their immense experience of the corporate-world and provide a competitive edge to our students. View Faculty

SCHOOLS AT IBA HERALD A NEW ERA

ADMISSIONS OPEN

ADMISSIONS OPEN
Programmes Form Submission Deadline
BBA June 25, 2021
MBA (Morning) TBA
MBA (Evening)
MBA (Executive) July 21, 2021
Department of Accounting and Law
Programmes Form Submission Deadline
BS – Accounting and Finance June 25, 2021
Department of Finance
Programmes Form Submission Deadline
MS – Finance July 14, 2021
MS – Islamic Banking and Finance
Department of Management
Programmes Form Submission Deadline
MS – Management July 14, 2021

SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (SESS)

Fostering Intellect

The School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS) is an amalgamation of the Department of Economics and the Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts.

Expanding on the merits of the newly established SESS, the Economics Department's platform of Economics Research Seminar Series (ERSS) provides students an integral platform for dialogue on a range of topics along with an opportunity to present their research. On the other hand, the Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts prepares students in academic disciplines including Philosophy, History, Literature, Political Science, Religion, Media Studies and many others.

The SESS has a faculty comprising of seasoned academics, out of which almost 30 faculty members have PhDs.

Dr. Asma Hyder

The establishment of the School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS) is an exciting time for the faculty, students, and researchers of the merged departments. As the Dean, I am committed to ensuring that the SESS programmes are the best preparatory grounds for our students before entering the professional world.

All programmes in Economics and Liberal Arts are led by highly qualified and seasoned faculty. Our curriculum and the School's scholarly environment encourages students to develop themselves as effective practitioners and scholars. The plethora of courses offered at the SESS allow students to develop comprehensive skills in reading, writing, quantitative thinking and research, thereby preparing students for various career paths and life-long learning.

The research conducted by SESS is on diverse topics. While the Economics Department is involved in impactful research on corporate governance, bonds and stock markets, economic growth, institutions, political economy, and sustainable development, the Social Sciences Department is ingrained in cutting-edge research on climate change, gender, urbanization, tourism, human behaviour, and social psychology. One of our top goals is to include our students in research endeavours to provide them pathways to successful careers.

Finally, I welcome you all to join us in our endeavours and to address some of the society's pressing challenges.

OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENTS


Department of Economics

The Department enables its students to learn theory, empirical investigation and policy analysis. The classroom and on-campus experience help the students to be trained as modern-day Economists for national and international institutions, Researchers and Policy Analysts. Visit website

Programmes Form Submission Deadline
BS - Economics June 25, 2021
BS – Economics and Mathematics July 16, 2021
MS - Economics July 14, 2021
PhD - Economics

Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts

The Department adopts a multidisciplinary approach by offering majors in Psychology, Political Science, Media and Communication Studies and History. The students learn through theoretical and experiential knowledge. Visit website

Programmes Form Submission Deadline
BS – Social Sciences and Liberal Arts June 25, 2021

Faculty

Our seasoned faculty works on real as well as academic issues in close coordination with the field specialists to produce quality research. The faculty is well-versed with the latest trends, pertinent issues that affect our social environment and hold exceptional qualifications both on the academic and practicing fronts. View Faculty

SALIENT PUBLICATIONS IN 2020

SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE (SMCS)

Imbibing Ingenuity and Innovation

The Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Computer Science under the umbrella of the School of Mathematics and Computer Science(SMCS) offer an eclectic mix of courses to students. The research labs for Artificial Intelligence, Web Science, Big Data, and Telecommunications allow Computer Science students to delve deep in the technological realm. Akin to this, programmes in Mathematics provide a thorough background in theory, quantitative methods and applications commensurate with international standards.

The SMCS has a faculty comprising experienced practitioners and researchers, out of which almost 25 faculty members hold a doctorate degree.

Dr. Shakeel Khoja

The history of Science programmes at the IBA spans almost four decades and as the IBA moves into the new system of Schools, the newly established SMCS must continue to incubate and stay poised towards cutting-edge research and development in science and technology.

In the coming years, we plan to enhance our academic programmes by investing in our faculty, establishing strong research and industrial ties across the globe and bringing new specializations in Mathematics, Computer Science and allied fields.

The foremost aim of SMCS is to establish academic linkages with leading, global schools to enhance our teaching and research practices. Secondly, we aim to offer more streams of specialization in Mathematics and Computer Science. Recently an MS programme in Data Science was introduced. We envisage more productive and society driven research in the new School.

With the IBA's mission to undertake applied research to enrich teaching and influence thinking on important issues of business and public policy, we believe that SMCS will play a pivotal role by contributing towards global issues that science and technology can solve.

OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENTS


Department of Mathematical Sciences

Programmes Form Submission Deadline
MS - Mathematics July 14, 2021
PhD - Mathematics

The students are provided with a thorough education in theory, quantitative methods and applications, along with the opportunity of more specialized training in selected areas of pure and applied Mathematics. Visit website

Faculty

Our exceptional faculty members, adept in their domains, are dedicated to teaching the integral concepts of algorithms and theory, computer architecture and quantum computing, computer vision and pattern recognition, data mining and machine learning, distributed systems and grid computing, information systems and much more. Faculty members, mostly foreign qualified from renowned universities, lay a solid academic foundation for the students. View Faculty

Department of Computer Science

Programmes Form Submission Deadline
BS – Computer Science July 16, 2021
MS – Computer Science July 14, 2021
MS – Data Science
PhD – Computer Science

The history of the Computer Science programme at the IBA dates back to early 1980s when the Faculty of Computer Science was established in collaboration with IBM.

Initially, we started by offering a diploma programme in Computer Science to overcome the shortage of Information and Systems Analysts in the country. We have come a long way since then as the Department presently prepares the students in areas of artificial intelligence, software engineering, systems analysis, computer systems, databases, and data communications. Visit website

SCHOOLS AT IBA HERALD A NEW ERA