Career counselling: Questions and answers

Q.No.1: I want to apply for PhD in a Pakistani university or abroad. However, I have no idea about how to apply for PhD scholarships. I checked out different university scholarship websites but did not get required answers I was looking for. Please assist me in obtaining a PhD scholarship. (Farkhanda)

Ans:  The first thing you need to do when applying for a PhD is to write a good synopsis on your chosen topic of research. I’m sure you know the structure and key aspects of a good synopsis. Following this you need to prepare a set of documents that should include a comprehensive CV, all academic documents and transcripts, copies of all your applications if any and certificate of English language proficiency/ IELTS / TOEFL to meet particular requirements of a university. All universities that offer PhD/research possibilities have a separate portal and guidelines on availability of research supervision and they would start matching your research, and identifying a relevant supervisor. Once this is done, you should contact the supervisor with your synopsis to see if they can undertake the supervision of your chosen topic and if so they will ask you to make a formal application to the university and that is how you go ahead making an application. Alternatively you can apply through us but then our relevant department will need to contact you and they will have some charges for the service hours.

Q.No.2: I am a student of BS Computer Science and currently in 4th semester. What I want to do is to enroll myself in some course like Web Development, Android development or Graphic development etc during my vacations which is related to my current degree and also be useful to me. Kindly suggest me a course that is in demand both locally as well as abroad? (Mohsin Ali-Chishtian)

Ans: First of all I would like you to focus on your studies and make sure that you pass your computer science degree with good grades, at least 3.2 ++. There are several areas within the Computer Science domain that you can look at for short courses. These include Cyber Security, Social Media, and Web Development particularly from Android perspective etc. The other area which is emerging is search engine optimization or SEO which is linked with Web Development and also is in high demand. Many of these courses can be done online and you can Google them. However, a number of IT institutions in public and private sector which include COMSATS, ITU, FAST, NUST etc offer these courses but I’m not sure of the duration and fees. So you will have to check individually from each of them.

Q.No.3: I have recently completed my FSc medical exam through F-10 College, Islamabad. My subjects include Biology, Physics and Chemistry. I am expecting my marks to be around 780/1100. I would like to ask about the career options ahead except MBBS and BDS. I am interested in research. Please guide me which universities in Islamabad are offering research programs?

Ans: There are several areas in Biological and Health Sciences which lead to further research and have great potential and career prospects. The most emerging areas include Cellular or Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology etc. Please check with Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad and Arid University Rawalpindi. I’m sure they offer a range of courses in Health and Biological Sciences.

Q.No.4: I have done intermediate from Adamjee Science College and my percentage in first year is 65% and I have taken the exams of second year but I think I will not get enough percentage. I want to go for IBA for BBA program but my intermediate is in pre engineering. So I think I have to do A-levels by choosing three subjects Physics, Maths and Accounting so as to provide myself with the right base in BBA program. My question is that should I go for an improvement exam in BIEK board or rather go for A-levels because I do want to go abroad for future studies?. (Moeed Saeed)  

Ans: Since you are planning to go abroad you don’t need to repeat for your FSc or do your A levels again. There are several options that will make it possible for you to go for a BBA degree abroad and that to by saving a couple of years that you will be spending in repeating your A levels. My suggestion is that you do a simple foundation programme that is offered through Study Group or Navitas which will then lead to your admission to a good university either in UK, Australia or USA. A foundation is a one year programme and since you are an intermediate student you will be able to do this without much difficulty and this will help you in your progression towards a degree programme.

(Syed Azhar Husnain Abidi is a renowned educationist in Pakistan, with more than 20 years of experience as provider of education counselling services. He has represented Pakistan in over 100 national and international seminars, conferences and fora. He is a recipient of the most coveted civil award Tamgha-e-Imtiaz).