Category: Education

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) It was a moment of pride for The Citizens Foundation (TCF) as 6 TCF alumni were awarded degrees at the 26th Convocation of The Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), a renowned university in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan earlier this month.

TCF is a non-profit that has been working for the last 27 years to make education accessible in rural areas and slums for less privileged children in Pakistan. The Economist calls TCF ‘perhaps the largest network of independently-run schools in the world.’ To date, 53,000 students have matriculated from TCF, many of whom have gone ahead to study in top universities within and outside of Pakistan.

Asad Raza, a TCF School and College Alumni from Surjani Town, who was recently awarded a BS degree in Electrical Engineering at GIKI said, “My father is a fruit-seller. It would have been very difficult for me to study at a good school and college if it wasn’t for TCF. I am grateful for the academic and financial support I have received from TCF throughout my journey that has made this triumph possible.”

On this remarkable achievement, Syed Asaad Ayub Ahmad, the CEO of TCF remarked,” We are filled with joy and gratitude on yet another remarkable achievement by our alumni – most of whom are first-generation learners in their families.” He added: “Each one of these graduates carries a unique story of struggle, perseverance and overcoming extraordinary odds to get to this point. It reminds us that every child holds the potential for greatness if given the right opportunity. We wish our children the best of luck for this next chapter in their lives.”

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) A one-day symposium on “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- rising above the trauma” was organized in Kinnaird College, Lahore. The symposium was aimed at orientating the participants about mental stress and disorders resulted after any trauma. Renowned and learned personnel in Clinical Psychology like Dr. Rafique Dar, HOD UOL Dr. Syed Imran Murtaza , Medical Superintendent, Fountain House Lahore, Dr Rehana Mushtaq, Assistant Professor Riphah International University Lahore, Dr. Mirrat Gull Sr. Clinical psychologist PACT, Dr. Saima Majeed, Associate Professor FCCU & PIMH and Lt. Col (R) Imtiaz Mehmood, CEO Creative Dimensions, attended the occasion and shared how PTSD developed in response of traumatic life experiences. They also discussed myths & facts about PTSD in detail.

The students of Professional Certification in Clinical Psychology presented psychodrama, a video titled Myth & Facts (hope beyond hurt) and a documented video based on PTSD as result of domestic violence. The event was moderated and organized by Ms Rukhsana Mehmood, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Course Facilitator of PCCP at KCLCD, Kinnaird College, Lahore. Dr.Noshaba Hassan Murad, Director UMT Lahore, Ms. Maha Jamil Director KCLCD and Mr. Rizwan Anwar Executive Director KCLCD, Kinnaird College for Women were also present at this occasion. At the end of the event, certificates were distributed among guests and participants by Dr. Rukhsana David, Principal Kinnaird College.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Beaconhouse, Pakistan’s largest network of private educational institutions, under its recently introduced Hybrid A Level school, titled Homebridge, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust (SNPET), to offer scholarships to Sanjan Nagar students over a period of 5 academic years. The MoU was signed between Harris Sufyan, Project Director at Homebridge by Beaconhouse, and Beena Raza, Member of Board of Trustees, Sanjan Nagar Trust, at a ceremony held in Lahore.

Under this partnership, Beaconhouse will offer merit-based financial assistance to five students registered under SNPET, to cover their admission fee, tuition fee, laboratory charges, LMS (Learning Management System) enrollment, textbooks, and other fees required for various extra-curricular activities. Beaconhouse will also provide necessary devices, including a laptop or a tablet, along with internet connectivity for each student, as required for academic progress in the Hybrid A Level programme.

Commenting on the partnership, Nassir Kasuri, Executive Director at Beaconhouse stated, “The Hybrid A Level programme offered by Homebridge is focused on providing a long-term alternative to on-campus education to the masses who have limited access to high-standard international programmes. Through this partnership with the Sanjan Nagar Trust, we wish to provide better opportunities to deserving students who can receive quality education through an easier, more flexible education model, and have better chances to lead a progressive life.”

Farzana Kausar,  Principal Sanjan Nagar School, Lahore stated, “We at Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust Higher Secondary School (SNPET-HSS) appreciate the Beaconhouse and Homebridge teams for this great initiative in making unequal access to education, equal. We are very excited that SNPET-HSS students will become part of the first batch of this programme and wish the very best to the Homebridge team and our students for their collaborative success.”

The Hybrid A Level school is a flexible model that adopts an innovative framework providing students with the opportunity to pursue international qualifications, without the limitations of time and place. Employing a hybrid teaching method for the CAIE A Levels, the concept focuses on a blend of online and on-campus access, building bridges across socio-economic segments, cultural nuances, and physical distances.

Beaconhouse being an entity providing educational services to a large and diverse group of individuals of varying ages, socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities over 4 decades, has always aimed to bring educational excellence to the masses in Pakistan. There are currently more than 315,000 enrolled across various campuses of Beaconhouse School System in Pakistan.

Sanjan Nagar is a not-for-profit school setup that intends to expand its holistic education system, while also seeking philanthropic efforts from donors for its underprivileged students to build a better future for the nation.

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Education experts at an advocacy forum while projecting the vitality of education towards an educated society and national progress, have emphasized on the need for girls education with more focus on the increased allocation of budget for this sector especially in Punjab.

The advocacy forum was arranged by the Awaz CDS Pakistan here with a major focus to highlight the importance of education without any gender bias and raise demand for sufficient budgetary allocation for education sector.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan Zia ur Rehman; Professor of Economics, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Dr Qais Aslam, Additional Secretary (P&D) School System Qaiser Rasheed, and Director General of Punjab Assembly Anayat Ullah Lak; spoke on the occasion while a number of representatives of education sector organizations joined the forum.

In his opening remarks, Zia ur Rehman gave an overview of the educational facilities in the Punjab province in terms of gender and region. He explained that education plays a vital role in shaping up an educated and skilled society that leads to national economic prosperity.

He further emphasized upon the provincial government to ensure equal as well as quality education in all areas of the province without any discrimination.

To achieve this goal, the Awaz CDS Pakistan Chief Executive urged the government to immediately notify the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014.

In his remarks, Dr. Qais Aslam from the University of Central Punjab said that the current overall education level in the province is not up to the mark as there still exist a number of barricades in terms of social circumstances, access to schools, paucity of public funds, lack of furniture and other facilities.

According to him, these bottlenecks can be removed significantly if the provincial government prioritized this important sector by earmarking an increased chunk of the budget. He said that according to the Pakistan Bureau of statistics (PSLM 2019-20), 16% urban while 28% rural children of Punjab are still Out of School whereas percentage of out of school children is increasing which shows a need of great seriousness towards education as we have the one of the largest pool of young people who will go wasted otherwise.

Additional Secretary (P&D) School System Qaiser Rasheed acknowledged the irritants towards equal opportunities, especially in remote areas. He threw light on the budget allocated for education, especially girls education. He further said that Chief Minister Punjab, Mr. Hamza Shehbaz  has already called for briefings from education sector and he appreciated the afternoon schools programs.

He highlighted the importance of Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs) and vocational trainings alongwith scholarships given to underprivileged children and parents of communities working at Brick kilns. He, however, said that despite these odd factors the provincial government is making all-out efforts to ensure provision of facilities at schools across the province.

Anayat Ullah Lak shared the history of Free and Compulsory Education Act and he endorsed that the girls education is not getting the level of seriousness required to ensure quality education for girls in the province. He said that free compulsory education can play a significant role in ensuring education to all with increased students enrolment at schools. He said that the provincial government’s initiatives towards free and compulsory education is a significant initiative and mentioned provision of free text books to students on annual basis.

He assured to also take up the issue of delayed notification of the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 with the relevant government authorities as it would pave the way towards provision of equal and quality education to all.

Education Champion-Ms. Marium Amjad shared that according to Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-2022, 25.7 million children were enrolled in Primary classes (I-V) and Out of these 11.7 million (45.5%) were girls. It is interesting to note that only 8.25 million went up to the next level (Middle stage of VI-VIII classes) and out of which 3.8 million (46.0%) were girls and only 2.5 million passed their metric (class X) and reached Inter level, out of which 1.3 million (52%) were girls. She demanded attention from Punjab Government in form of declaring Education Emergency in the province.

A question-answer session followed the discussion, where the participants raised related questions regarding contribution on the part of private sector and the government initiatives on free and compulsory education in the province.

In his concluding remarks, Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan Zia ur Rehman thanked the stakeholders, experts and other participants for giving their inputs on the advocacy forum agenda.

The closing ceremony saw participating startups pitch their unique digital solutions to the program’s corporate engagement partners.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Microsoft for Startups, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), graduated 21 startups from the second GrowthX Accelerator program during a Demo Day on Tuesday, 28 June in Abu Dhabi. The ceremony was attended by startup founders, corporate partners, investors, government officials and other stakeholders from the regional startup ecosystem.

During the 12-week program, startups worked closely with Microsoft’s corporate engagement partners DHL, EY, Koç Holding and PwC to co-create technology solutions that address real challenges facing corporations in MENA. Participating founders pitched their solutions during the Demo Day to a panel of corporate partners, who shared their insights and feedback.

Eng. Abdulla Abdul Aziz AlShamsi, Acting Director General at ADIO, said “Startups are an essential driver of innovation and job creation, so it is crucial that we increase opportunities for them to access the tools and resources they need to drive impact. That’s why we launched the GrowthX Accelerator in partnership with Microsoft, so we could help businesses grow and scale, while supporting the private sector in accessing unique innovations. We congratulate the startups who graduated from the second GrowthX Accelerator and look forward to seeing them leverage the solutions created during the program to drive further impact in the UAE and the region.”

“It has truly been incredible to see the growth of these entrepreneurs over the course of the program. We’ve seen them leverage every opportunity to enhance their skillset, develop their solutions and embrace the learnings available to support them in growing and scaling their businesses,” said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE.

“The GrowthX Accelerator is unique in that it is specially curated to not only empower startups with the tools, training and networking opportunities they need to grow and scale, but it also supports corporates in their endeavours to engage innovative tech startups in providing unique solutions to the very real problems they are facing. We thank our corporate engagement partners for participating in this important program and truly congratulate the graduating startups,” said Hashish.

As part of Microsoft’s commitment to empower startups with the tech, mentorship and access that they need to become future unicorns of the Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan, the graduating startups will have continued access to support from the Microsoft for Startups team who will continue to encourage growth and provide the tools required to scale across the region. Some of the startups will also work with Microsoft corporate partners in the future to identify business and mentorship opportunities.

The 21 startups from the GrowthX Accelerator that offered breakthrough solutions to meet corporate clients’ challenges and requirements include AiFlux, DevisionX, Event Gates (EGT Kontrol AS), Farmdar, Farmin, Greener Crop, IPERA.AI, Lune Technologies, monak e-services, NutzenTech, Nybl, Occicor, Olymon Solutions, Pivony, PowerDev, Sav, Searover, Swftbox, Trade Capital Partners (TCP), Valorafutbol, Workfam.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) IBA Karachi, steers into a new direction from being one of the leading business administration institutes to one of the best multidisciplinary institutes of higher learning in the country. IBA’s Retreat was held after the formation of three schools and the appointment of three permanent deans for each school. The IBA Retreat 2022 was organized at Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi from June 28 -29, 2022 under the leadership of Dr. S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA Karachi, who invited key stakeholders from IBA, along with prominent experts and strategists from academia, to participate in the development of IBA’s future vision.

IBA Karachi has gone through tremendous transformations to become a multidisciplinary teaching and research institution. Three full-fledged schools have been formed – namely the School of Business Studies (SBS), School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS), and School of Mathematics and Computer Science (SMCS) – a number of new degree programs have been launched; policy and regulatory frameworks have been put in place; various research and professional development centres have been established to cater to the emerging needs in order to adapt to the ever changing local and global dynamics. The purpose of the Retreat 2022 was to remain abreast with the recent trends, ideas, while envisioning the role of the IBA in the socioeconomic development of the country and lay the foundation for a concentrated journey to achieve IBA’s vision.

The key pillars for the Retreat were identified as: meaningful and impactful research, innovation culture, alignment of academic programs with global trends and market needs, enhanced role of professional development centers, accreditations, quality faculty, academic/industrial linkages, and overall financial sustainability of the IBA.

The leadership aspect reflected upon the newly appointed full-time deans who will lead their respective schools on the academic and research fronts – enabled by a revamped Office of the Registrar which will provide administrative, technological and logistical support. Various steering and monitoring committees are in place to ensure accountability across the board.

The infrastructural and technological development side included, the solar energy project, faculty apartments, new girls’ hostel, state-of-the-art digital IBA project, and overall revitalisation of the campuses.

The event was attended by a large number of IBA faculty members, staff, senior leadership including Dr. S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director; Dr. Asad Ilyas, Registrar; Dr. Wajid H. Rizvi, Dean, SBS; Dr. Abdullah Sheikh, Dean-elect, SBS; Dr. Asma Hyder, Dean, SESS; Dr. Shakeel Khoja, Dean, SMCS; and Dr. Maheen Ghouri, Dean, Student Affairs.

Dr. Tariq Banuri, former Chairman, Higher Education Commission; Dr. Syed Zahoor Hassan, Professor and former Vice Chancellor, Lahore University of Management Sciences; Dr. Jawad Syed, Professor, LUMS; Mr. Jawwad Farid, Chief Executive Officer, Alchemy Technologies; and Mr. Rami Awad, Regional Manager, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, also participated in the event and highlighted the future role of universities in the development of society and economy.

The participants appreciated the idea of setting up a long-term plan for the IBA and underscored the importance of holding such events in the future to monitor and ensure progress towards IBA’s future vision.

 

 

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Convocations are an honoured tradition to celebrate graduates’ accomplishments in the presence of loved ones, peers, and teachers. On June 30, the LUMS Class of 2022, came together to look back at the precious memories they made on campus, and look forward to new beginnings.

Around 1100 graduate and undergraduate students from all five schools at LUMS were awarded degrees at the convocation. The University’s senior leadership including Pro Chancellor, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, Rector, Mr. Shahid Hussain, Vice Chancellor, Dr. Arshad Ahmad, Members of the LUMS Board of Trustees, Deans, faculty and staff members celebrated the momentous occasion with the graduates and their families.

Registrar, Ms. Zara Fateh Qizilbash delivered the welcome address, following which, the Pro Chancellor, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood formally inaugurated the 34th convocation of LUMS.

Vice Chancellor, Dr. Arshad Ahmad congratulated the graduating class and wished them well for their future. He recognised the convocation as a defining moment for all students. While referring to the ongoing political uncertainty and economic challenges, he called upon all graduating students to discover their individual roles and serve a greater purpose. He also emphasised strengthening a collective hope for a better and stronger Pakistan. Towards the end, he advised all students to embrace their full potential and move forward, following in the footsteps of their predecessors while adhering to the timeless qualities of integrity, punctuality, respect, patience, and empathy.

The keynote address at this year’s commencement was delivered by the inspiring, Justice (Retd.) Nasira Iqbal. Recipient of the prestigious, Sitara-i-Imtiaz 2021, Justice Iqbal was one of the first five women to be appointed to the Lahore High Court, where she served as a justice from 1994 to 2002. A Harvard Law School graduate, she is sought after as a legal scholar, has lectured around the world and has represented Pakistan at various international forums. She lauded the efforts of the LUMS community to enable and empower Pakistani youth by providing high-quality and impactful education and training.

In her address, she wished the graduating class success and expressed the hope that they will contribute to the development of the country and create shared value for the people around them. She also urged the graduates to pursue inclusiveness as a way of tackling intolerance in society. Justice Iqbal appreciated the gender equality ratio at LUMS and quoted her own example, “There should be no age barrier to acquiring higher education and students should pursue it as the only means of achieving progress and prosperity.”

Alina Anjum, this year’s valedictorian, inspired her fellow students by sharing her experiences at LUMS and her ideals of pursuing self-belief and strengthening mutual bonds.

One of the winners of this year’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Dr. Haniya Azam, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, shared her thoughts about the enabling environment at LUMS that facilitates learning, growth and success. She also encouraged the graduates to never settle for less and strive for excellence.

Dr. Azam’s address was followed by the awarding of degrees to all graduating students, the robing of PhD graduates, and the presentation of the National Management Foundation awards and corporate medals to high-performing students.

Late Aqsa Fatima, a LUMS student who passed away in April and was to graduate this year, was awarded a posthumous MBA degree to honour her memory. Rector, Mr. Shahid Hussain, presented the degree to the parents of late Aqsa Fatima.

A recorded broadcast of the ceremony can be viewed at the LUMS Facebook page.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Expressing grave concern over the 2.2 million out of school children, with girls being the majority, experts have stressed on the
implementation of Free and Compulsory Education Act and girls right to
secondary education in Punjab.

These thoughts were expressed in the consultation session on the
Implementation of Free & Compulsory Primary Education Act and Girls’
Right to Secondary Education organized by Awaz CDS and National
Commission for Human Rights. The major focus of the session was to
emphasize on the initiatives needed to be taken to ensure primary
education of children and reducing girls drop out from secondary
schools as it would contribute a lot towards ensuring educated women
population, a guarantee to economic and social stability.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS, Mohammad Zia ur Rehman, Member/Commissioner
(Punjab) National Commission for Human Rights, Nadeem Ashraf, Director
School Education Department, Mr. Ghulam Farid, Member Punjab Assembly,
Ms. Uswa Aftab, and Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Ms Noorish Sabah, Director
Punjab Literacy Department, Ms. Baela Raza Jamil from ITA and other
academics as well as members from NGOs attended the event.
In his opening remarks, Zia ur Rahman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS
highlighted the significance of girls quality secondary education and
explained the grey areas in the way of girls education in Punjab.
He urged the Punjab government to immediately notify the Punjab Free
and Compulsory Education Act 2014 which was approved earlier . He
stressed for increase in development budgets for school education as
developments budgets are only being distributed to PEF and PEIMA
rather development budgets needs to be utilized for the development of
public schools especially for girls, where missing facilities and
accessibility is still a major challenge. He further warned that due
to fuel price hike many girls are leaving schools and more drop outs
are expected after summer vacations.

Mr. Nadeem Ashraf, Member/ Commissioner (Punjab) National commission
for Human Rights welcomed the audience and discussed the bottlenecks
and challenges in implementing Free and Compulsory education act and
ensuring girls basic right of getting education and shift nation
towards stability.

He said that according to PSLM 2019-20, In Punjab for every 100 girls
enrolled at the primary level, 38 are out-of-school and for every 100
girls enrolled at the secondary level, 162 are out-of-school .

Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Member Punjab Assembly highlighted the recent
development for enforcement of Punjab Free & Compulsory Education
Amendment Act 2020 for the immediate enactment of law . She stressed
that Governor Punjab Mr. Baligh-ur-Rehman should take steps to get
this education Act notified without any delay as education is priority
for all parties.

Member Punjab Assembly, Ms. Uswa Aftab on behalf of School Education
Standing Committee stressed on the importance of notification of
Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Act 2014 to ensure every child is
getting basic education and country is progressing towards achieving
SDGs on education.

She said that her department is constantly working on this sector and
said they would make extra efforts to sensitize more and more people
on girls education in order to minimize girls secondary school drop
out ratio.

The floor was then opened for Answer questions followed by insightful
discussion on making primary education compulsory in the province and
ensuring girls are getting secondary education and thus contributing
towards stability and national goals of educated Pakistan.

GIZ Pakistan organized Certificate Award and Showcasing Programme
Achievements Ceremony under Clean Power Purchasing Development Project

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) A certificate award ceremony for Master
Trainers in Entrepreneurial Skills trained at the Professional
Development Center of National University of Science & Technology
(NUST) Islamabad under the Clean Power Purchasing Development project.
The project is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur
Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as part of the DeveloPPP.de
Programme of German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation &
Development (BMZ).

Chief Operating Officer TEVTA Punjab, Mr. Zaheer Abbas was the chief
guest at the occasion who distributed the certificates to the master
trainers along with Ms. Iris Cordelia Rotzoll, Head of Programme TVET
Sector Support Programme GIZ, Mr. Muhammad Ishaq Bhatti, Chairperson
Solar Quality Foundation (SQF), Mr. Faisal Mahmood, Regional
Coordinator (Punjab) and DV Clean Power Purchasing Development
Project, and Mr. Haseeb Saadat CEO Allied Solar Private Limited &
local partner of Power One for One Germany. Other senior officials
and heads of institutes from Punjab TEVTA were also present at the
occasion.

The DV Clean Power Purchasing Development Project, Mr. Faisal Mahmood
presented the programme achievements over the last three years. The
project has trained 37 Master Trainers on technical skills related to
design, installation, O&M of solar PV plants, 30 Assessors in CBT&A to
support implementation of National Vocational Qualification in Solar
PV, and 40 TVET Professionals from TEVTA Punjab and PVTC on
Entrepreneurial Skills to promote entrepreneurship in the Solar PV
sector. A 10-kW grid-connected pilot solar PV plant was installed with
the support of project partner Power One for One at TEVTA Government
Technical Training Institute, Gulberg Lahore for education purpose.

Addressing to the participants, the Head of TVET Sector Support
Programme GIZ, Ms. Iris Cordelia Rotzoll, stated that all these
efforts not only lead to a new beginning and small steps toward
sustainable energy generation and management, but also open avenues to
promote the trend of green skills in Pakistan. The master trainers,
trainers and assessors trained in Solar PV technology will create a
pathway for internal and external buy-in among more and more TVET
trainers and managers.

Speaking at the ceremony Mr. Zaheer Abbas appreciated the role of
German cooperation for promotion of clean energy in Pakistan through
DeveloPPP Programme. He highlighted the fact that promotion of green
skills is inevitable to fight the global climate change and save the
environment while also conserving the natural resources. He expressed
his resolve that master trainers trained under the project will be
utilized to support implementation of solar PV training courses in
Punjab and increase the quality & access to trained human resource for
solar companies.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) The School of Business Studies (SBS) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi held its first International Conference (IBA-SBSIC 2022) on ‘Decision Making in a Disruptive Age’. The three-day conference provided a platform for scholars, researchers and academicians to showcase their research and findings along with facilitating collaborative transnational research to further our understanding of disruption in a fast-paced digital economy. The theme of the conference centered around neuromarketing and its rapid growth due to swift digitalization, especially following the post COVID era.

Along with keynote speaker sessions, the conference also featured several parallel paper presentation sessions in the areas of management, marketing, accounting and finance tracks. Papers were presented on different areas of research by faculty, researchers, and graduate students from national and international universities. Paper presentation sessions helped in identifying new research directions and areas of collaboration among researchers from various backgrounds. The keynote sessions were aligned with the four thought leadership areas of IBA-SBS including, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Behavioral Studies, Investment Decision Making and Islamic Business and Finance.

The first day of the conference comprised of two workshops on ‘Consumer Neuroscience’ and ‘Governance in Islamic Finance’. The first workshop on ‘Consumer Neuroscience’ was conducted by Dr. Joseph Devlin, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience & Vice Dean (Innovation & Enterprise), Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London (UCL); Dr. Daniel Richardson, Professor of Experimental Psychology, UCL; and Dr. John Hogan, a Neuroscientist at UCL. The workshop on neuroscience featured interactive sessions and examined the role of technology in understanding human behavior and its applicability in business research. The second workshop on ‘Governance in Islamic Finance’ commenced with an enlightening session on the theory, practice and challenges in corporate governance faced by Islamic Institutions by researchers including, Dr. Tasawar Nawaz, Lecturer in Finance, University of Plymouth; and Dr. Nader Virk, Senior Lecturer, in Finance, Accounting and Finance, Swansea University.

On the second and third day of the conference, keynote speakers from the US and UK universities spoke about various aspects of neuroscience, adaptive learning as well as ethical and sustainable finance.

The second day commenced with an opening note by Dean SBS, and Head of Neuroscience lab, IBA, Dr. Wajid Rizvi. Followed by an enlightening session by Keynote Speaker, Dr. Richardson, on the topic, ‘Using Neuroscience to study Collective Behavior: Underwater Nightclubs, Live Theatre and the Eurovision Song contest’. This session under the thought leadership area of Behavioral studies at IBA-SBS also related to work on consumer neuroscience at IBA-SBS. The second Keynote Speaker session was delivered by Dr. Omar Al-Tabbaa, Associate Professor, Leeds University, on the topic ‘How does adaptive learning take place in cross-sector collaboration during global crises? Insights from emerging economies’.

The third day began with a third Keynote Speaker session by Dr. M. Kabir Hassan, Professor of Finance, Department of Economics and Finance, University of New Orleans, on the topic, ‘Research in Sustainable and Ethical Finance’. This session related to the IBA-SBS thought leadership area of investment decision making and helped audience identify emerging areas of research in the ESG investing. The last and fourth Keynote Speaker session was delivered on the topic ‘A Mind Reading Machine: Facts, Fictions and Ethics’ by Dr. Devlin.

Sharing their thoughts, the keynote speakers appreciated the well-organized conference in which they had a chance to share the latest research in their respective fields of expertise. They appreciated the attentive audience whose participation stimulated scholarly discussions throughout the conference.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Executive Director, IBA Karachi, Dr. S Akbar Zaidi commended the conference theme of ‘Decision making in a disruptive age’ as interdisciplinary and relevant. Dr. Zaidi thanked the keynote speakers who had traveled for the conference and invigorated the audience with quality presentations in their areas of expertise. He also appreciated the organizers for making seamless arrangements for the first international conference by SBS. Furthermore, Dr. Zaidi acknowledged the services of Dr. Wajid Rizvi, the inaugural Dean of SBS at IBA Karachi.

The conference concluded with the presentation of mementos to the guests and the organizing team. Subsequent conferences are planned in line with the inaugural event as part of the SBS mission to foster contemporary research and scholarly interactions.