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The Human Resource Development (HRD) at the Higher Education and Research Institutions of Pakistan: The IUB Case Study
Dost Muhammad Khan1, Najia Saher2, Faisal Shahzad3, Nawaz Mohamudally4
1

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science & IT, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, PAKISTAN & PhD Student, School of Innovative Technologies & Engineering, University of Technology Mauritius (UTM), MAURITIUS
2

Lecturer, Department of Computer Science & IT, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, PAKISTAN

Lecturer, Department of Computer Science & IT, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, PAKISTAN

Associate Professor, & Consultancy & Technology Transfer Centre, Manager, University of Technology, MAURITIUS

Abstract Each of the past three centuries has been dominated by a single technology. The 18th century is the time for the great mechanical systems accompanying the industrial revolution. The 19th century was the age of steam engine. In the 20th century the key technology is information gathering, processing and then distribution. Among the development we have seen the installation of the worldwide telephone networks, the invention of the radio and the television, the birth of unprecedented growth of computer industry and launching of the information satellite. Due to the rapid technology progress these areas are rapidly converging and the difference between collecting, transporting, storing and perceiving in function are quickly disappearing. Although the computer industry in young as compared to other industries like automobiles and air transportation, but the computer has spectacular progress in short time. Knowledge is a power; but the Knowledge of computer and IT is powerful. It is embarrassing all fields of knowledge. Now every discipline is leaned on computer. Even doctors, engineers, historians and politicians all are compelled to learn the computer. In this paper we discuss the IT HRD in the higher education and research institutions of Pakistan, a case study of IUB. Keywords: HRD, IUB, ITHRD

1. Introduction
Education is not a development but can prepare individuals to enhance their chances of exploring ways and means for development. The relationship between education and development is a two-way process, that is, quality education leads to the development and the development can pave the way for quality education. In recent times, the

term knowledge economy has become a currency concept. In most developing countries, the state of education in quantitative and qualitative terms is questionable. Recognizing the significant role education can play, rulers in developing countries should invest more in education as this investment may ensure a bright future for them. Pakistan was at the lowest rung of the ladder as its allocation for education was only 2.2 per cent of GDP. This amount was less than the amount allocated by the Maldives (8.1), Iran (5.4), Malaysia (5.1), South Korea (4.2), Thailand (4.0), India (3.7), Sri Lanka (3.1), Nepal (2.9), Afghanistan (2.3) and Bangladesh (2.3). There will be direct and indirect job opportunities. The graduates will get jobs in IT related industry. Many graduates will open their own Institute for training groups. The number could be in thousands. The focus of IT Human Resource Development is on developing the most superior workforce so that the organization focuses to design and implement institutional strengthening and capacity building training for its new employees within the department. IT HRD is the most important area of IT action plan. A major part of the funding of the IT action plan is earmarked for HRD almost 60%; so that this concerted effort is not short lived [1][2][3][4][9][10]. This paper is a case study which shows the effects of IT Human Resource Development (HRD) in the higher institutions of Pakistan. The case study thoroughly examines the impact of IT HRD at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB), Pakistan. The rest of paper is organized as: section 2 is about brief history of IUB. Section 3 is IT HRD at department of

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computer science & IT, IUB, a case study. Section 4 presents the results and discussion and the conclusion is drawn in section 5.

3. IT HRD at Department of Computer Science & IT: A Case Study

The promotion of the high quality of education and development of human resources is a serious concern and the priorities are reflected in the academic and infrastructural development plans of the institution. The intelligentsia, the teaching faculty and administrators are being pressed into the service of these objectives and are made to contribute to the framing of practical strategies to resolve them. The search for a solution is a difficult experience. The only way in which it can be made meaningful is within the conceptual framework and a forward looking vision, which the university management can anticipate. The teaching faculty, administration and the members of the development management have demonstrated positive practical response to these challenges in their action, which is hoped to be continued. The IUB always remained one of the leading institutions to spread the advanced scientific knowledge with the latest technology. The states of art new labs are being established with modern tools in almost every discipline of the university [5][7][8][11][12]. The university is located at a remote location from urbanized center and provides learning opportunities for rural society of both Punjab and Sindh provinces. More than four million populations is directly benefited from these expanded facilities. No other institution is providing such educational and learning opportunities to such a huge population. The government is now more emphasis on IT education and its implementation in all walks of life. Therefore, keeping in view the current and future requirements the government is planning to produce IT experts from lower-level to high-level skills of more than 10,000 per year. The IT professionals produced will find ample opportunities to serve public and private organizations. The following tables show the number students in different programs, number of faculty members and the existing facilities at the department. The intake in different programs offered by the department during year 1996 to 2000 is given in table 1.

2. A Brief history of IUB

The IUB attained the level of a University in 1975, as a general university, whereas it is in the 85th year of its existence as a specialized institution imparting education in the religious sciences i.e. Quran, Hadith, and Tafseer, Fiqh, Ussol-a-Fiqh, Seerat and allied fields of the Islamic Learning. This institution has passed through different phases of its academic development and now functioning as a general university offering postgraduate courses in physical and social sciences, commerce and management sciences, IT and computer sciences, agricultural and veterinary sciences, engineering and Islamic learning. MPhil and PhD level courses are also being offered in the selected disciplines. The university has made its contribution towards the educational development of the country by implementing the national policies of teaching, training, exchange of knowledge and research. The university is also attentive to meet the educational needs of the inhabitants of area by accepting the challenges of fast developments in the fields of science and technology and adopt continually changing tendencies and new problems raised by the educational development around the country. The department of computer science was started in 1994 to cope up with the future demands of the new technology. Initially one year PGD course was offered, which was upgraded to MCS degree program in 1996 with a batch of about forty students. In 1998, BCS, three years degree program was offered, the first ever program of its kind in the region. This degree program was then converted into four years BS(CS) program. The department is being run by the strength of twenty faculty members having the MCS, MS and PhD in the different fields of computer science and additional industrial experience and two faculty members have received higher training from Japan. The teaching and lab practices in the department are being supported by five well equipped computerized labs; three new labs are recently established and equipped with the grant of Rs. 11.00 million under the strengthening of IT capacity and HRD project. IT HRD is the most important area of IT action plan and will upgrade the existing facilities of the department of computer science and IT. The department has eleven offices for the staff, five class rooms, one seminar hall, one departmental library and one common room form students. The department is using modern academic tools like multimedia for the coaching of the students. The department is offering BS(CS), BS(IT), MCS and MS programs. The university is also providing training facilities to the government employees through the department of computer science and IT [6].

Table 1 shows that the number of students in year 1996, which is also the starting year of MCS degree program is 40 and the intake is increased by 10 in the next years till 2000, which is low in order to achieve the required targets. On the hand the university starts BS(CS) program in year 1998 and 52 students were enrolled. If we add the intakes of both programs the figure is still below the target. It is due to the lack of available resources like HRD and IT facilities at the department. With the provision of the

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additional facilities, the intake of BS(CS) and MCS is doubled and new programs like BS(IT) and MS are introduced. The projected intake is shown in table 2.

provision of funds and grants. Table 5 shows the income estimates in million.

Table 2 shows that the number of students from year 2011 are doubled in BS(CS) and MCS program, which is a respectable figure to achieve the target but still behind the required target set by the government. Now the problem is the availability of qualified faculty, table 3 shows the faculty strength at the department.

Table 5 shows that the income in the starting year 1996 was 0.72 million and is increased up to 13.50 million in year 2008 with the provision of IT HRD at the department. The annual recurring budget of the department from year 1996 to 2000 is shown in table 6.
Table 6 Annual Recurring Budgets 1996-2000

SN 1 2 3 4

Faculty Slot Lecturer Lab. Demonstrator Office Assistants Naib Qasid Chokedar Equipment Maintenance Computer Accessories Visiting Faculty Miscellaneous Total

Qty 4 2 3 2 1

Monthly Salary 20,000 5,000 7,000 5,000 5,000

Annual Cost (Million) 0.96 0.12 0.25 0.12 0.06 0.60 0.60

Table 3 shows the faculty position at the department, there is only one professor and the remaining faculty is either assistant professors or lecturers. The department further needs to acquire the qualified faculty in order to run the started degree programs and to enhance the teaching and research. The existing facilities in the department of computer science and IT are shown in table 4.
Table 4 The Existing Facilities

5 6 7 8 9

10

5,000

0.60 0.10 3.41

Item Class Rooms Labs Faculty Offices Staff Rooms Departmental Library P-IV P-III Laser Printer Dot Matrix Switch L2 Switch L3 Hubs 08 Ports Hubs 36 ports LCD Panel Projector Laser Pointer Scanner Teaching Aids

Qty Remarks 05 Adequate 05 Adequate 09 Adequate 02 Adequate 01 50,000 Books 200 Inadequate 50 Inadequate 05 Inadequate 05 Inadequate 03 Inadequate 02 Adequate 02 Inadequate 05 Adequate 02 Inadequate 02 Inadequate 02 Inadequate 01 Inadequate Audio / Video tools with Multimedia etc.

Table 6 shows the annual budget of the department from 1996 to 2000, which is 3.41 million and the income estimate from 1996 to 2000 varies from 0.72 to 4.49. This shows there is difference between the income and the budget estimates from 1996 to 1999. In 2000 the value of income is greater then the budget, this is to due to the start of new programs and by doubling the intakes of the students with the provision of additional facilities at the department. Another important point in table 6 is during the period of 1996 to 2000 the department has only few faculty members and there was no faculty member at the professor and associate professor or even assistant professor. The shortage of faculty is filled by hiring the visiting faculty. The level of quality of research and education in the department during 1996 to 2000 was very low and gradually improves after the IT HRD by attracting the qualified faculty at different higher posts. The annual recurring budget of the department from year 2001 to 2008 is shown in table 7.
Table 7 Annual Recurring Budgets

Table 4 shows that from the existing facilities at the department class rooms, labs, books and networking switches are adequate to meet the requirements, the rest of the items like computers, printers, projectors and multimedia are inadequate. Therefore, the existing IT facilities are further strengthened through the additional

SN 1

Faculty Slot Professor

Qty 2

Monthly Salary 100,000

Annual Cost (Million) 2.40

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Associate Professor Assistant Professor Lecturer Network Administrator Lab. Demonstrator Office Assistants Naib Qasid Chokedar Equipment Maintenance Computer Accessories Visiting Faculty Miscellaneous Total

1 4 8 1 5 3 2 2

70,000 50,000 30,000 25,000 5,000 7,000 5,000 5,000

0.84 2.40 2.88 0.30 0.30 0.25 0.12 0.12 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 16.61

4. Results and Discussion

After the implememtation of IT HRD at the IUB, there is a significant in crease in the every field of the university. Table 8 below shows the number of students, the number of disciplines, the number of books and the number of emplyees of the university from year 2000 to 2009.
Table 8 The Data of the IUB from Year 2000-2009

No. of students

Table 7 shows that the annual budget of the department was 3.41 million up to year 2000, after the enhancement of the existing facilities and the implementation of the IT HRD at the department the budget is 16.61 million which shows almost the increase of four times. The students intake in the department is also doubled and the income estimates are 13.50 in year 2008. The target set by the government to get 10,000 IT experts from the country is achieved as shown in the above tables. Figure 1 shows the trend of the applicants for the enrollment in different programs offered by the department of computer science and IT from year 1996 to 2008.
1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Application Received MCS Application Received BCS Application Received BIT

Sr. # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

No. of Students 3,000 3,500 3,300 3,100 4,000 5,000 7,000 8,500 10,000 13,000

No. of Employees 500 500 500 510 575 700 800 1,000 1,500 2,000

No. of Books 75,000 85,000 85,000 86,000 90,000 95,000 100,000 125,000 150,000 200,000

No. of Disciplines 22 22 22 22 25 30 35 38 47 47

Table 8 shows that with the enhancement of existing facilities in the university, there is increased in the number of students, the number of employees, the number of books and the number of disciplines, which shows the impcat of IT HRD. This is iluustrated in figure 1.
14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 1998 2000 2002 2004 Year 2006 2008 2010

Figure 2 Graph of Number of Students per Year (1998-2010)

Figure 1 Year-wise Enrollment

The graph in figure 2 shows that the yearly increase in the number of students. At the same time the number of employees, the number of books and the number of disciplines are also increased. IT is essential for the growth and development of a country. The government has launched its IT policy to keep pace with technologically developed countries. The present policies of the government lay emphasis that it is the right time for newly established facilities at the university to penetrate into IT and benefiting the university faculty, research scholars, students and the administration by the proliferation of its services. The followings are the major results achieved from the implementation of IT HRD at the IUB: 1. Trying to enter into the information age at a much higher pace, there is substantial evidence that Pakistan would definitely have

The graph in figure 1 shows that the trend of students to get admission in the department before year 2000 is positive and after the year 2002 the trend is promising due to the enhancement of the facilities at the IUB. The university is not only able to enhance its existing facilities at the department of computer science & IT but also promote the high quality of education and development of human resources in the academic and infrastructural development plans of the university. Thus IT HRD has a better prospect on the quality of teaching as well as the quality of research at IUB.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

trouble with keeping up the demand for new IT Professionals. The attractive salaries offered to the IT Professionals in developed world are making the worst ever brain drain. Creating DemandSupply gap with the current growth trends in the local industry, it is expected that demand of academically skilled IT Professionals in the immediate future would be highest than ever. Most of the fast growing companies in Pakistan are already reporting the nonavailability of IT Professionals to staff their operations. It is therefore imperative to build a highly talented pool of IT Professionals to meet the demand of local industry. This will benefit about 1140 students annually belonging to the lower income group population of the remote areas of the Southern Punjab and the Northern Sindh Provinces. This will provide equal opportunity of higher education to all citizen of Pakistan regardless of their social status or income level. Economic benefits are not much difficult to ascertain. Total expenditure of 30 month project activity (4 batches of BS(CS) and MCS programs) would be Rs.36.91 million whereas direct benefit from services of only 25% of successful IT graduates can generate more income assuming average earning of each professional @US$ 20,000 annually.

IUB. After providing the enhanced computing facilities, the university is producing skilled IT professionals, serving in different fields. The university is fulfilling the demand of the required IT skilled professionals. We conclude this paper that IT and HRD program has enhance the IUB, not only the number of IT equipment is increased but there is also increase in number of the students, faculty members, administartive staff and the books in the library. Hence the quality of education and research is also improved.

Acknowledgement
IT Human Resource Development (HRD) project is implemented at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan due to the courtesy of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan. This project is fully funded by HEC, Pakistan.

References
[1] Callon, Jack D. (1996), Competitive Advantage through Information Technology, McGraw Hill Book Company, Singapore. [2] Gates, B. (1996), The Road Ahead, Penguin Books. [3] Kibria G. (1998), Technology Acquisition in Pakistan, City Press Publication Karachi. [4] Lucas, Henry C. (1997), Information Technology for Management, McGraw Hill Book Company Singapore. [5] Patel, Keyur and Marry McCarthy (2001), Digital Transformation, McGraw Hill Book Company, Singapore. [6] Prospectus (2007 2008), Under semester system, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur. [7] Rosen, L. (2001), Techno Stress, Wiley and Sons, NJ. [8] Turner, C. (2000), The Information Economy, Kogan Page Limited, UK. [9] Web site: http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/02/ed.htm [10] Web site: http://www.slideshare.net/punit9july/internationalbusiness1-1615119 [11] Web site: http://www.fba.nus.edu.sg/isworld/books.htm [12] Web site: http://ezinearticles.com/?Importance-OfTraining-And-Development-In-A-Firm&id=1885451

5. Conclusion
The world is a global village; it is only due to the rapid growth of computer and IT. In todays information age the knowledge of computer is a must. We use computers in each and every aspect of our lives. Anybody who wants to succeed in todays world cannot afford to ignore the computer and communication technologies. Our society has become so dependent on computers that we cannot survive without them. Also they are great tools for improving the human productivity, provided one knows how to use them. In this paper we discuss IT HRD at the