Six Research Groups

UPDATE: 4 Feb 2014: Meetings are continuing -- goal is to re-organize research groups and activate them and link them up with student researchers, and get them to contribute to classroom teaching.

I have met with three research groups, and plan to meet the remaining ones later. Most research groups are “groups” in name only – all members are doing their own separate work, and there are no group meetings to create a sense of commonality. We need to re-constitute these groups, provide them with clearly defined research goals, and set them some common tasks. I have now obtained lists of M.Phil. Research topics from most HOD’s. I have circulated a survey to faculty for their research interests. Once this data is gathered, I will classify the research into categories, and create suitable sub-groupings.

I have asked all the six research groups to provide a report on their activities in the past few years. Meetings will be scheduled starting next week. In addition, we will try to chalk out a plan for the future, in terms of fruitful directions of research to be explored. There are two major goals to be pursued in organizing the research plans. Instead of everyone haphazardly doing research on whatever topic happens to be convenient, I would like to see all of the research tied into a coherent plan suitably adapted to the goals and vision of PIDE as a leading research and teaching institution. The second goal is to link the M.Phil. Students with research groups so that they can receive training in research, and guidance in production of their M.Phil. Theses. It is my experience that student demand for thesis topics is a major driver of research, and this will stimulate research groups into greater productivity. This initiative will create the link between research and teaching that has been missing; it will also highlight the strengths of PIDE as a research institution, by providing this dimension as input to the teaching process in way that cannot be matched anywhere else in Pakistan.