Dr Shahabuddin: Universities should provide answers to the turmoil across the world

The Aga Khan University (AKU) will on Saturday graduate over 700 students across its campuses globally. We sat down with the AKU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sulaiman Shahabuddin, to get his thoughts on what universities can do to provide answers to the economic downturn, joblessness, conflicts, and social challenges facing the world today.

Q. The world is going through turmoil, with increased conflicts, economic downturn and loss of jobs. Do you see a role in universities providing some answers?

Let me start with a quote from Nelson Mandela. He said: “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” I believe in that.

Universities create knowledge. They disseminate knowledge. They preserve knowledge, and they educate the leaders of tomorrow and those of today in some cases. So, the role of universities in education is significant. In this world that is torn by conflict, education allows people to understand the issues, to go to the origin of the issues, and to come up with rational thinking and analysis. That's the role of education.

Q. Every year, universities graduate thousands. The question that people keep asking is, where are the jobs?

The time for broad learning is over. It is time for critical thinking and critical analysis. That's the kind of graduates we should produce – people who can think; people who can add value to the society. We also have to view issues in the context of tomorrow; what will be relevant. That should be the basis of the education we provide today.

The entrepreneurial spirit needs to be developed. It’s not simply about getting a job. Just look at how successful the start-ups have been around the world, and Kenya has been a hub for start-ups. That's what we need to build on – an entrepreneurial spirit into our young men and women so that some of them can create work.

As leaders who run these institutions, we have to think through the future of education and work. What was relevant 20 years back may not be relevant today. We are now talking of new fields like environmental sciences, data sciences, artificial intelligence, and so on. That’s where we need to focus our energy on.

Q. What is AKU’s view about the future of work?

We have just published our strategic plan for the next five years. This plan has seven strategic themes. Of these, two are focused on climate change and the environment, and data sciences and artificial intelligence. On climate and environmental sustainability, we have just established the Arusha Research Centre on Climate Change, which is a partnership between various universities, with Aga Khan University taking the lead. These are the University of Dar-es-salaam, Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology, and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, a technical partner in this project. So, again, a lot is happening on climate change and the environment. Our medical and nursing students are also taking elective courses on climate change and environmental sustainability.

On data sciences and artificial intelligence, for example, we are running a major research project here in Kenya jointly with the University of Michigan. This is on predictive health for maternal issues, for pregnant mothers, for children, and also for colorectal cancer. So, there's a lot of work happening, and we will not only do research on this, but also have formal graduate programmes in artificial intelligence and data sciences.

Q. Despite the ‘overproduction’ of graduates, we know education opens the door for many, especially those from poor backgrounds. What role is AKU playing in increasing access?

The Aga Khan University follows a needs-sensitive policy. Our aim is to attract the brightest of the poor to receive quality education at the university. Today, you'll be surprised that 73 percent of our students are on some form of financial assistance by the university. So, for us, we do not ask the question of whether you can afford this education or not. If you have gone through the selection process, if you have come on merit, if you qualify, we will make sure you receive the quality education you deserve. That’s our commitment.

Q. You have done well with the integration of health services and education. How important are your hospitals for the training of healthcare workers?

The best practices can be learned where there's good role modelling; where there's good faculty and teachers, equipment and technology, and so on. So, that's why we run the health system through the Aga Khan University Hospital. The faculty are also providing service in the hospital, and they are teaching the interns, residents, and medical students.

Q. This Saturday, Aga Khan University will be holding its global graduation, could you share with us some highlights on this?

First of all, we are very proud of reaching a big milestone. This Saturday, we will graduate our 20,000th graduate. Ours is a global convocation that is simultaneously being held in Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, Kampala, and Karachi. This year, we will graduate 730 teachers, doctors, nurses, journalists, and scholars of Muslim civilisations. Of these 730, almost 200 are Kenyans.

Q. AKU is not a big university, is it?

When he was establishing this university, His Highness the Aga Khan said we will always remain a small university, but a university of distinction playing a catalyst role. So, yes, we graduate small numbers, but our graduates go into leadership positions not only in Kenya, but across the countries where our graduates have migrated and travelled to.

Secondly, we use the latest improvements in technology for education and learning. Our Centre for Innovation and Medical Education, for example, is a place we are very proud of. We have all kinds of simulation equipment and technologies that provide training in real-life settings.

Another crucial aspect of our work and what is different is research. Our students are trained from the first day to carry out research because that is what we need in places like Kenya and many other low and middle-income countries where you need knowledge that is contextually relevant, and not knowledge that is borrowed from some other place and may not apply to the countries in which we operate. This also makes us different, with high focus on quality, a rigorous and competitive selection process, and picking up the best brains from wherever we can find them.

Q. Last year, AKU launched undergraduate courses in medicine and direct-entry nursing. Has the uptake been as per your expectations?

It is very exciting to start undergraduate medicine and nursing programmes at our Nairobi campus. This has been in the works for 20 years. His Highness the Aga Khan first spoke of undergraduate medicine and undergraduate nursing in East Africa in Kenya a couple of decades back, and we had to get a lot of things right to start this major programme. For example, our hospital, which is the training centre, had to elevate the laboratory to a certain standard. We first started with postgraduate programmes in medicine and different nursing programmes. Those had to deliver and achieve a level of stability and maturity before we could embark on these very significant programmes.

So, once we figured we were ready, with everything in place, we started this programme. We are very excited and grateful to the Government of Kenya and the Commission for University Education, and also to the governments of Tanzania and Uganda, who support us in our programmes and so many different investments.

Q. What more can we look forward to?

We are looking at a Master’s in Communication at the Graduate School of Media and Communications. We are also looking at how we can expand our communications programme further. We are looking at more research, and completion of our Kampala campus, among other initiatives. The Kampala project is almost a hundred-thousand-dollar investment: A new university centre, student accommodation, and a new 101-bed Aga Khan University Hospital. The construction has started. We are very eagerly looking at all these programmes, seeing how we can bring the region together; and how we can create programmes that are truly East African. That’s the plan.

Q. How linked are the courses that you offer at the Kenya campus, with those offered at the other AKU campuses across the globe?

We are well-linked in some cases. I will give you some examples: When we talk about our nursing and medicine programmes, we share a lot of expertise and knowledge across our campuses. I think this is important because, clearly, if you have had success in Pakistan or Kenya, we need to share that. We need to see what we should keep the same and what we should change.

But in other ways, we are different. If you take Kenya, for example, we have the Graduate School of Media and Communication, which does not exist in Pakistan. Similarly, in Pakistan, we just launched our faculty of Arts and Sciences, which is not present in East Africa at this point, though we hope that in the next decade or so, we will embark on an Arts and Science programme. To give you another example, we started with our environment research in Tanzania, which we have not embarked on in Pakistan yet.

Therefore, there are differences, but clearly, we try to share resources, expertise, and knowledge across our campuses as much as we can, and not only within the Aga Khan University campuses, but also with other international universities with whom we have fantastic partnerships.