PAGE Blog Business Weekly Magazine
The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is ranked number one top business universities in Pakistan. LUMS offers research studies in business management and information technology and also offers scientific research in humanities, philosophy, management engineering, arts, social and natural sciences. LUMS is a member of Association of Commonwealth Universities of the UK. At LUMS, executive education is given through the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) by the executive MBA, REDC (Rausing Executive Development Centre), and SEDC (Social Enterprise Development Centre). The Executive MBA program offered through the SDSB is planned for mid-career entrepreneurs and managers who are visioning to take on greater problems as they take their opportunities onto the coming level and make an impact on the output of their organizations.
Executive MBA program attracts participants from a diverse range of firms from all over the country and other states. The case technique of teaching, combined with the empirical knowledge through mutual communication, offers an exclusive flavor to the program. The centre serves as a scholarship-based research centre working towards the capability building of social enterprises in the country. SEDC has linkages with greater than 500 social sector firms and has printed greater than 170 notes and case studies authored through the LUMS’ faculty for the social industry. It has printed 6 casebooks on the social industry with numerous more in development. The centre also assists growth professionals to network, collaborate and take on strategy measures jointly and provides customized and open-enrollment training programs for NGOs in many aspects of capability building.
The university has also introduced a National Outreach Program (NOP) to reach out to brilliant students from underprivileged regions of the country. Under this measure, induction of pointed candidates into the academic programs will be facilitated through preparation for LUMS admission criteria and then through provision of full-financial aid to those who succeed. Various students are joining in the university on the basis of NOP. There are a number of scholarships which are given on academic/need attainment basis. A beginning assessment test is utilized to screen good students from the underprivileged regions of the country, which are then offered training at the University for the Common Admission Test.
Presently NOP Centre Marketing and Outreach team member conducted visits to increase consciousness about the National Outreach Program. The NOP Centre team member gives a presentation on NOP to the students, briefing them about the scholarship.
Library
LUMS library offers services that include online information searching, loans, document delivery, photocopying, reference services, access to virtual collections and digital resources, inter-library loan, viewing of audiovisual and microfilm materials, CD-ROM and online searching. Library has a compilation of 350,000 editions, 128,000 e-books and 35,000 e-Journals. The library has a multidisciplinary wing dedicated to jurist and scholar Khalid Ishaq, who provided 92,957 books from his collection to the library.
Financial Aid
Since its commencement, the management of the university has tried its maximum to make quality education reachable to all students, including those from middle and low income households in the country. The University offers generous financial aid packages to qualifying candidates in all its degree programs and since it’s begin has disbursed greater than Rs2 billion in financial aid to its students. Presently some 40 percent of the students in the university achieve some form of financial aid from LUMS based on the assessed financial requirement. LUMS disbursed greater than Rs350 million as financial aid to its students, during 2013-14. A high number of financial aid opportunities are obtainable to graduate and undergraduate students at LUMS based on merit and need.
Conclusion
No doubt, education is mandatory for economic stability and vital role in human capital formation. It raises the output and efficiency of individuals and thus generates skilled manpower. The situation in Pakistan, like many other developing states, is not very encouraging. The low enrolment rates at the primary level, high fees structure, large disparities between gender and regions, lack of skilled teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure of schools indicate the poor performance of this sector.
