AURORA: IBA KARACHI ISCELEBRATING 70 YEARS.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WEREITS LANDMARK MOMENTS?
S. AKBAR ZAIDI: IBAKarachi was established in1955 – supported by Wharton(University of Pennsylvania) andsubsequently by the University ofSouthern California, and in thesixties, it started offering degreesin business administration.In 1994, IBA was givenautonomous status whereby itwas able to give its own degrees – before that, they were given bythe University of Karachi. Thisis when we began to diversify.In 1995, we started a computerscience programme and in 1997a social science programme,and we have expanded eversince. In 2021, the old Instituteof Business Administration wasreframed as IBA Karachi, andwe set up three schools – theSchool of Business Studies,the School of Mathematics andComputer Science, and theSchool of Economics and SocialScience. And now in 2025, wehave just received accreditationfrom the Association to AdvanceCollegiate Schools of Business(AACSB). This is a huge qualityenhancement certificate thatputs IBA Karachi at the level ofthe 1,035 best universities in theworld, including Harvard, LondonBusiness School, INSEADand Stanford Business School.It reflects quality assurance,affirmation and recognition.
A: What are the criteria toreceive this accreditation?
SAZ: It is a process that takesthree to four years. It meansopening the institution toscrutiny and evaluation; whetheryou are teaching properly, thestudent-to-teacher ratio, thequality of the faculty and thestudent body. It means ensuringwe reach the standards requiredfor AACSB certification.
A: What are the benefits of thisaccreditation?
SAZ: It is a game-changer. It islike getting the academic Oscar.It is a recognition of our qualityand output. It will allow us toaccess these 1,035 schools interms of exchange programmesand curricula and to send our students to better universitiesand help them get better jobswhen they graduate.
A: IBA Karachi recentlyentered into a collaborationwith the Stanford Life DesignLab. What exactly is thisprogramme?
SAZ: Basically, it is about theway one thinks about andaddresses problems on apersonal and work level. Theidea was proposed to us byJunaid Aziz, an IBA alumnuswho teaches at the Design Labin Stanford. I visited the Lab andit is a very strange place. Thereis no classroom per se and it isvery interactive. We have enteredinto a collaboration with Stanfordand in December last year, BillBurnett, the Executive Directorof the Stanford Design Lab andJunaid came to Pakistan torun a number of courses andworkshops. Forty-two membersof our faculty also took theDesign Your Life course online,and this semester we are offeringthe course to our students. It isabout pedagogy and bringingproblems to do with the worldinto the classroom. Basically, itis about the individual, his or herrole in society, what matters tothem and about thinking aboutthe world in an interactive way.It’s about psychology, marketing,management, problem-solving,reflection and social skills. In anutshell, it teaches one to dealwith the world. Next semester wewill offer more classes and takeit to the private sector; a numberof companies have expressed aninterest in the course.
A: Given how quickly theworld is changing, what arethe subjects that interest IBAstudents the most?
SAZ: Our computer sciencedepartment and faculty is very,very good. They are doingrobotics and AI amongst otherthings. Two years ago, we starteda data analytics programme.There is a huge demand fordata analytics and we are nowstarting a course called businessanalytics – how businesses arerun and how to think about themin terms of the future. Of course,all marketing, managementand accounting courses have an AI component in them. Weare integrating technology inalmost every course. Take historyfor example; what is a digitalarchive? We are also hopingto start a course on digitalhumanities. The other popularprogramme is psychology.Dozens and dozens of studentswant to study psychology. Toanswer your question, AI, dataanalytics, business analyticsand psychology are the newemerging fields at IBA.
A: Why the interest in psychology?
SAZ: Anxiety and stress havebecome a big concern amongkids these days. Three yearsago, we started a wellnesscentre at IBA with trainedtherapists, psychologists and apsychiatrist who sit on campus.Students go there with issuesabout their domestic situations;about their parents, their fearsand apprehensions. Covidhas also contributed to theiranxieties – and this continuesto be a global problem. Thenthere are concerns related toclimate change. There is a lotmore anxiety than there wasbefore. This is an anxiousgeneration and our studentsare also part of that. Theywant to understand what ishappening and psychologyoffers an opportunity to do so.In August, we are starting aMaster’s in psychology – theundergraduate programme isnot enough and people say wewant to delve further in orderto understand and to cope.Pursuing the degree may nothelp you solve problems, but ithelps to understand what theproblems are.
A: How does IBA manage tokeep up-to-date with the paceof change that underpinsanything to do with AI? Canyou even set a course outlinethat remains relevant for theentire academic year?
SAZ: Everything is affected byAI; our textbooks are becomingless and less useful. No onewrites a book on the internetanymore; everything haschanged before you end chapterone. I don’t think any universityin Pakistan, or in many otherplaces in the world for that matter, is current in terms ofwhat is happening – even theIvy League universities. The question is how quickly we cancatch up. In Pakistan, we areobviously not going to be atthe level of a lot of the very good universities.
A:Why not?
SAZ: Pakistan does not havethe infrastructure. We are noteven on X. We are way behind.A recent global internet surveyputs Pakistan as one of the worstcountries in the world for internetaccess. India, Bangladesh,Sri Lanka and Nepal are wayahead. I don’t think we will everget to a stage where we arewhere Singapore or Malaysiaor Turkey are. Or where manycountries in the Global Southare – and certainly not whereIndia is. One of the reasons wewill always be behind is becauseof the ecosphere we work in.We are not internet-friendly. TheMiddle Eastern countries, despitecensorship, are doing much betterbecause they realise that thisis where the world needs to go.That technology is going to drivethe world. As a country we arenot doing enough – science andtechnology are hardly recognised.
A: Looking to the future, whatshould IBA Karachi be striving for?
SAZ: Better quality education.We are very good, but we canand should improve.
A: How?
SAZ: Better faculty memberswho can ensure our studentsare qualified to get into thebest universities in the world.As a primarily undergraduateuniversity, our goal must beto ensure that our studentsget admission to the bestuniversities of the world. Ourstudents are getting into Oxford,Cambridge, Berkeley, Stanfordor Princeton – something thatwas not happening earlier.Young Pakistanis are strivingto do better so that they canget admission abroad andthis trend is going to continue.Furthermore, now that we areAACSB accredited, we shouldbe able to take IBA global,and I am very particular aboutinternationalisation. We hiredseven foreign faculty members in the last year. They live andteach here; it’s not online. I wantto attract better faculty withmore exposure. People who aredealing with issues such as AIand climate change at a muchmore practical and advancedlevel, and I want that knowledgeto come here and be given toour students. We also need toexpand our infrastructure. I amhere only for another two-anda-half years; my second tenurecomes to an end in 2027, andsomeone else will have to takethat over. The idea is to makeIBA larger. The ambition is betterquality students, better qualityoutput, better quality teaching,better quality faculty, and betterquality infrastructure.
A: Is there an ambition toexpand within Pakistan?
SAZ: I don’t think that is a goodidea. Karachi has 30 millionpeople, and we can only take in1,200 students a year. People goto Harvard and Princeton fromall over the world, and if we areof that quality, people will comefrom all over the world to us.Harvard is not going anywhere.NYU went to Singapore, Yalewent to Singapore and theMiddle East and closed down.My ambition is to make the IBAan even better university andlet people come here. We getstudents from Gilgit-Baltistan,Sindh and Balochistan. Ourfinancial aid to students is aboutone billion rupees a year, whichis phenomenal. About 30% of ourstudents receive financial aid. Wecan expand that. We need to doall this better and more in tuneand integrate with the world.
A: How is IBA supportedfinancially?
SAZ: IBA has its own finances.It comes from the students, ourendowment fund and contributionsfrom our alumni. We also receivesome money from the Sindhgovernment. We are a public sectoruniversity, and a lot of people forgetthat. In fact, IBA Karachi is a verygood example of how the publicsector can work. We have ourown board of governors. The chiefminister is our patron – he is thehead of all universities in Sindh – but we are not dependenton the Sindh government financially. One reason why IBAdoes so well is because it isfinancially autonomous.
A: Does IBA have a vicechancellor?
SAZ: I am the vice chancellor.
A: You are appointed by thegovernment?
SAZ: I am. I was selectedthrough an ad process.
A: Recently, the mediareported that the governmentwas considering appointingvice chancellors drawnfrom the bureaucracy ratherthan academia. What is therationale behind this?
SAZ: The quality of educationin Pakistan is very poor, evenat a higher level. There are264 universities in Pakistan, ofwhich maybe 15 or 20 are good,a lot of them are average andmost of them should be closeddown. They were establishedfor political reasons… “I needone in my district. I need one inmy constituency,” and so forth.There is a crisis of leadershipin the universities. I think thegovernments in Sindh, Punjaband Khyber Pakhtunkhwabelieve that administrators andcivil servants are better trainedand more competent to run theuniversities. I don’t think that is thecase, but I also think there is acrisis in academia. We don’t havegood academics who can leaduniversities, and this is a problemthat needs to be addressed byattracting better academics fromabroad or from Pakistan andgiving them autonomy. A lot ofgood academics don’t want torun universities; they prefer toconcentrate on their research.
A: Do you see the quality ofhigher academia in Pakistangoing down or up?
SAZ: Very much down.
A: Why?
SAZ: One, the universities arenot autonomous financially orintellectually or in terms of whatthey would like to do. Two, of the264 universities we have, manydon’t have good quality facilitiesor faculty. There is a majorcrisis in higher education inPakistan like there is in primaryand secondary education. Mostuniversities are dependenton the Higher Education Commission, and the federaland provincial governments.Only a handful of universities,such as IBA Karachi, DowMedical College, FAST, NED,NUST and UET in Lahore,are financially autonomousalthough they are public sectoruniversities, and they are runon professional lines and offerquality education. However,they cannot cater to themillions who want to enrol andthis is why I am talking aboutexpansion. The solution lies not in creating more universitiesbut in concentrating on quality,merit and autonomy. Let’s fixthe universities that we have;support and expand them andoffer better education.
See Bringing the Deep Logic of Design Thinking to the Inner Lives of Individuals
Dr S. Akbar Zaidi was in conversationwith Mariam Ali Baig. For feedback: aurora@dawn.com