TURNING AROUND AN EDUCATION FROM NATIONAL COLLEGE OF TEXTILE ENGINEERING TO THE NATIONAL TEXTILE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Arif Iqbal Rana is Associate Professor in Lahore University of Management Sciences.

This paper presents a short account of my experiences as a consultant to the National College of Textile Engineering during its “transformation” to a University. It highlights the practices that Alhamdolilah were instrumental in the improvement effort, as well as those that caused minor setbacks. The last section contains a brief summary of what I learnt from this experience.

In a nutshell, the Textile College (University) experience taught me the following:

• There a lot of “basic goodness” all around; including the government sector.
• The key problem with government institutions is the lack of merit based evaluation system that “differentiates” good performers from the average.
• Performance evaluation should be done by a group, on agreed and measurable criteria (and for faculty this group should also be from the faculty).
• Leaders with clear vision are essential for an institution; left on their own, most people will normally work on “looks”(hardware) as opposed to the “spirit”(software).
• Working towards a common vision (the “spirit”) is difficult and real “transformation” takes a lot of talking, training and time.
• Involvement of ALL the key stakeholders: industry, faculty AND students is necessary.
• There are three basic rules to building a top quality institution: merit, merit and merit.