Much has happened at the SSE since the last newsletter of October 2005. The most publicly visible events at the SSE were around the visit of our Advisory Committee (http://sse.lums.edu.pk/advisory_committee.htm) to Lahore in February. This included a public workshop and subsequent dialogues between the Advisory Committee, LUMS Management Committee, LUMS faculty and the SSE Virtual Program Development Team (VPDT).

Other events were less public but equally important. LUMS has decided to adopt a tenure-track faculty appointment and promotions process; there have been a number of faculty candidate talks at the SSE even as the tenure process was being debated; the SSE has embarked on a Dean search; the groundbreaking for the SSE building has taken place, and serious efforts are underway towards establishing research activities in areas of interest to the SSE. We hope you find the progress encouraging.

 

 

We held a public workshop at LUMS with more than 150 attendees and speakers from China, India, Germany, Canada, Turkey and the USA, in addition of course to Pakistan. LUMS SSE has been in the planning and development stage for about two years, during which time we have consulted broadly but in smaller groups. This workshop was our first opportunity to engage much wider range of national, regional and international supporters in a sustained dialogue with the SSE; and also to familiarize them with the environment at LUMS.

The workshop had one goal: to understand how to build research universities in the developing world and harness them for socio-economic progress. One motivation for the workshop was to understand a quiet yet strengthening revolution in global higher education, as several countries (including in the developing world) attempt to create universities modeled on the American-style research university. The success of the US research university in the 20^th century as an engine of technological innovation and scientific discovery, and as an engine of economic growth has been so phenomenal that it is not hard to see why.

The American research university is a uniquely new institution. It crystallized into its present form only in the last 50-60 years - primarily after WWII and the 1960s, when the ‘Federal Grant Research University’ came into its own. Its earlier form had evolved in the late 19^th and early 20^th century from the synthesis of three different traditions: the British undergraduate education, broadly considered to be the best; the German graduate education – first institutionalized by the Germans in ‘The Research University’ in early 19^th century; and the American service ethos, leading to the creation of practical professional programs suited to the US’s growing industrial needs. Its post WWII form evolved by availability of massive federal funds for research, and through a transformation in engineering education, from a basis in macroscopic phenomenology, charts and handbooks, to a solid foundation of scientific principles. The most visible impact was the scientific and technological progress of the US; and in the last decade, the entrepreneurial contributions of the US research universities to the economy. All of this was built on a fundamental commitment to both basic and applied research, maintaining very high standards for both.

LUMS SSE aims to be a globally competitive research school. Similar to the evolution of US research universities, we are attempting to create a model suited to countries like Pakistan by borrowing the best ideas from around the world. We are also cognizant, however, that a blind importation of external models is unlikely to work. We will need to adapt ideas to our circumstances. Therefore, a broad objective of this workshop was to learn from others’ relevant experiences on how such adaptations can be made to work.

We were interested in two levels of questions for the workshop. At a higher-level, we were interested in understanding the need for quality research universities in developing countries; the internal and external conditions necessary for their success; balancing basic and applied research for development; developing superb undergraduate and graduate training programs; and ensuring long-term commitment to research and education by supporters. At a more operational level, we hoped to advance our understanding on implementation problems encountered when trying to build a research university in a developing country. These are issues such as: recruiting and retaining quality faculty; starting and sustaining quality research programs; creating the right research and educational environment; inculcating an entrepreneurial spirit; raising resources; and mobilizing policymakers to create the national framework needed for research universities to succeed.

On most of the above questions, we felt the workshop was very productive, and would like to thank all the participants for their time and ideas. We would also like to thank our sponsors who supported our vision of the workshop and helped us realize it. These included Dawood Hercules and Total Parco as Platinum Sponsors; Emco, NesPak, Sapphire and Techlogix as Gold Sponsors; and Pepsi and Qarshi as Silver Sponsors. You can see some details about the workshop at (http://sse.lums.edu.pk/sse_workshop.htm).