Last week, I got an opportunity to attend a major media conference held at Neniang Technological University in Singapore. The conference is hosting a university in the world every year. This time it was completed by the Niyang Technological University. The university ranks 12th among the best universities in the world.
Such a conference hosts great benefits to universities. They have the opportunity to introduce their resources, technology and research in the world through such conferences. They also create new links that not only help them to create a good name in the academic world, but also provide financial support opportunities.
In addition, hosting such conferences increases the number of new admissions in their MPhil and PhD programs and also shows interest in working with the world’s best faculty.
Niang Technological University was also taking advantage of the opportunity to fully promote his Womer School of Communication and Information. The main campus of the university extends to 490 acres. It has about 1,400 faculty members and more than 37,000 students are studying.
The surprising thing was that no security guard or check post was available at any university gate. People were entering the university without any investigation. Public buses were running in the middle of the university. No one was checking the identity of those entering the building.
There were tables, chairs and benches to sit inside the buildings where they could do their work comfortably. There were small breakout rooms in the sides, where people were working as small groups away from external noise.
My conference was being held in three buildings of the university. Outside a building, a large registration counter was created. After registration, we can participate in our custom sessions. Each building had dozens of sessions simultaneously in separate rooms and seminar halls of each building.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmdpduoiqzs
The amazing thing for me was that the administration could not see anywhere. His rooms and halls were equipped with new technology. There, such a session was arranged and in the best position.
I remembered my university to see that despite the best features available, everyday lectures could not be done without running administration and technical staff.
Here we used to go to the hall ourselves. Those who had to present their research will connect their computers to the control table with the projector or take their presentation to the computer there and in a few moments their presentation was visible on the screen through the projector. Mike’s button was pressed and he used to walk. We did not need to call anyone.
The biggest problem in Pakistani universities is to connect computer projector. In this, 10 to 15 minutes of lectures are ruined. If a person is accidentally using a MacBook, it is clearly denied that your system cannot be seen here. Everything was already ready here. If you want to present on the university system, work there. If you want to use your system, add it to the system. Showing the screen of the projector, there was a large screen on each wall so that everyone sitting in the seminar hall could easily see the ingredients on their nearby screen.
Looking at all this, I was wondering if a Pakistani university was able to organize the conference on this scale.
There was no university in my mind that had resources to host this level.
In addition to lack of resources in our universities, there are serious administrative and structural issues. Bureaucracy issues are additional him. For months, a small function approval is ruined. To conduct such conferences, sovereignty, timely decisions, international relations, funding approval and diplomatic links are required which are currently beyond the power of our universities.
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In addition, security issues, political instability and poor economy in the country are also a major obstacle for organizing such conferences.
Many countries ask their people to be cautious about the visit to Pakistan. Even if they come here, their embassy asks them to be limited to some areas.
These conferences have a large number of MPhil and PhD scholars. Most of them either get partial money from their university. They do not want to live in expensive hotels or eat from expensive restaurants. They are fond of going to general public places and watching local lives. We cannot protect them in such places in our current situation.
Our visa policy is also a major obstacle to organize such conferences.
A large number of Indian scholars attended the conference. If this conference had been held in Pakistan, many of them would not have joined it. This is the case with India.
Next year, a major conference is going to be held in Mumbai. Pakistani scholars are still worried that they will not be able to receive Indian visas to attend the conference after the recent war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4CDXNRVJ34
Despite all these difficulties, we may not be able to organize such conferences in Pakistan right now, but it is not impossible to do so.
The same conference was held in Hyderabad, India a few years ago. The university is better ranked than this university in Pakistan. If this university can get an opportunity to host this conference, then why can’t we get it?
Our universities need to recognize their internal and external problems and move towards their solution. This will not be a moment, but a short step in the right direction every day can help us create a stable institution in a long time.
Then we will also be able to host such conferences and bring our country, culture, institutions and people into the world.
