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​In developing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, we have kept constantly in mind the attributes and skills needed for leadership in a complex and fast-evolving world. The hallmarks of our graduates will include what we refer to as the four C’s and the three E’s: critical thinking, clear communication, creativity, commitment to service, entrepreneurial outlook, engagement with pluralism and ethical action. 


Critical thinking

The critical thinker combines skill in quantitative reasoning; the ability to scrutinize ideas in the light of their social and historical context; and close attention to humans’ emotional needs and cognitive biases. Enduringly curious, they are lifelong learners who relish opportunities to add to their knowledge.  


Clear Communication

Those who cannot effectively share the fruits of their critical thinking fail in one of the key tasks of leadership, which is to build understanding of vital goals and issues through persuasive communication. The ability to clearly communicate one’s ideas to multiple audiences – in writing, orally and visually – will be among the most important attributes of FAS graduates. 


Creativity

Creativity helps us to take an idea developed for one purpose and adapt it to another, to see a problem from the perspective of different individuals, cultures and academic disciplines. It makes it possible to narrate another person’s story as they themselves might, and to understand the roots of a worldview we do not share. 


Commitment to Service

True leaders think of their duty rather than their power. Good leaders view their position as a trust, they work for the good of others, for the service to others. Though many look up to them, they do not look down, but measure their own actions against their guiding principles to see if they are indeed worthy of emulation. 


Entrepreneurial Outlook

What do we mean by an entrepreneurial outlook? Not one motivated by profit. Rather, the determination to tackle daunting challenges and do that which has never been done, whether in art, science or business. The confidence in one’s abilities and the recognition that great achievements require calculated risks. 


Engagement with Pluralism

Pluralism enriches our lives by expanding our sense of what it means to be human. But it also presents serious challenges. We want graduates to understand the ways diversity can open the mind, as well as the discomfort and misunderstandings it can occasion. We want them to remain optimistic about the potential for reason and discussion to bring us closer together. 


Ethical Action

Around the world, we see corruption eroding trust and compromising the effectiveness of institutions. Our graduates must be capable of rigorous ethical reasoning and committed to acting upon the conclusions they reach. They must have the independence of mind needed to swim against the tide and the honesty required to scrutinize their own conduct as closely as that of others.

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​How will we develop the kinds of leaders we wish to send into the world? With an education that goes beyond – beyond the confines of a single subject, culture or mode of inquiry; beyond outmoded pedagogy that hampers learning and thwarts enthusiasm; beyond the classroom and into communities; beyond what can be found on any campus in Pakistan. 

The Core Curriculum

The core curriculum is a required set of reading-, writing- and discussion-intensive courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, quantitative reasoning and ethics. Occupying the bulk of students’ first two years, it is an opportunity to grapple with profound questions and the answers given to them by different cultures, religions, eras, thinkers and disciplines. By ensuring that every student shares a formative intellectual experience and acquires certain essential knowledge and skills, the core creates a community of inquirers. Rather than a superficial survey, it is a sustained conversation that engages students in humanity’s quest to understand itself and the universe. Not the least of its benefits is that it provides a model for the reasoned debate on which democratic polities and pluralistic societies depend. 

Interdisciplinary Majors

The major enables students to acquire powerful intellectual tools for illuminating reality and shaping the world. Through their major, students develop both confidence and humility, as they begin to master different modes of inquiry and to discover what it takes to add to humanity’s store of knowledge. Students select their major by the end of their second year and spend most of their third and fourth years taking courses within it. The four majors are: Politics, Philosophy and Economics; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Human and Environmental Biology; and Social Development Studies. We have chosen to offer interdisciplinary majors because we believe a multifaceted perspective on reality will enhance students’ capacity not only to analyse the world but to act in it. An economist who is also an acute judge of the political scene is more likely to succeed in influencing public policy, just as a writer who understands the historical origins of literary forms will be better equipped to adapt them to her own moment.

Effective Pedagogy and Learning Experiences

Decades of research have clarified which teaching strategies work best, and which educational experiences are most likely to lead to deep learning. Effective classroom methods include problem-based learning, where students spend substantial class time solving problems using concepts learned in lectures, readings or online; team- based learning, which offers opportunities for learning in small groups that allow students to assist one another; and inquiry-based learning, which encourages the discovery of concepts through experimentation. Meanwhile, a number of outside-the-classroom experiences have been found highly beneficial. These include assisting faculty research, structured internships that require students to analyse their experiences and a senior thesis or capstone project that involves extensive self-directed research and writing. FAS will leverage these and other insights to maximize learning across all four years.

Life in a Diverse Community

It is one thing to study humanity’s diversity in the classroom. It is another to experience it for oneself, through the process of living and learning alongside people from a range of cultures, religions, regions, ethnicities and countries. To afford our students that invaluable opportunity, we will assemble a student body that reflects the extraordinary diversity of Pakistan and its neighbours. To ensure that FAS is accessible to all talented students, regardless of their financial means, we will offer generous scholarships and financial assistance. Every FAS graduate will learn, from personal experience, how rewarding it is to form relationships across boundaries. They will see for themselves that a common appreciation of diversity and a common commitment to tolerance can form the foundation of a thriving community. 

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