Re: Doctors…where your… Pressure Lever…
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**Working conditions at UET
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SCIENTISTS do research and write papers on their findings. These papers are published in peer-reviewed journals, meaning that every paper that is printed in these journals is first reviewed and then approved by other scientists. Almost 90 per cent of papers submitted fail to pass the peer review. That’s why usually scientists are measured by how many papers they print in peer-reviewed journals.
There is another measure too, and that is to see how many times a scientist’s work is cited by other scientists. That’s sometime called an** ‘h’ index**. There are many databases that calculate one’s ‘h’ index. One of them is found at the website ISIHighlyCited.com. On this site, one can see the results for Pakistan. **The grand total is one: Dr Shahid Hassan Bokhari.
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If you click on his name, you can see a long list of accomplishments. He is the only Pakistani who is an elected fellow of the IEEE, **the world’s most prestigious engineering institute.
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Dr Bokhari was a professor in the electrical engineering department of the UET, Lahore, for the past 25 years. A few weeks ago he resigned from his job and is about to move to the US. Why? The Higher Education Commission (HEC) asked Dr Bokhari, among many others, to change his job from permanent to contractual. In the HEC’s opinion that would have somehow improved the quality of teaching.
Dr Bokhari wrote to the HEC that it wasn’t fair. The HEC basically did not respond in a positive manner. It has initiated a programme at UET called the Oman chair to bring one professor from overseas to UET on a salary of $6,000 per month. Dr Bokhari was being paid $800. He protested. The HEC again did not give a very positive response. Dr Bokhari’s students were using computers that were bought in 1993. **He wanted an upgrade but no one gave him any money. Recently, a new lab with the latest computers was made for the computer science department.
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Dr Bokhari wrote to the UET senate saying that** his students should also get some new computers or at least lab time in the new lab**. The senate refused. Dr Bokhari complained to the HEC. The HEC did not give a positive response. After many such non-positive responses, Dr Bokhari decided to resign from the UET. He now plans to join MIT in the US.
The UET’s loss is MIT’s gain. No wonder Pakistan is regressing with every passing day.
KAMAL AFTAB
Lahore
**http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/14/letted.htm
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