Abstract

Faisal Manzoor Arain1 and Awais Ahmad Tipu2

The developed nations have pioneered the innovative concepts and techniques in the field of education such as project management. Academic institutions in the developing world could benefit a lot from the methods and concepts employed by the developed world institutions. A paradigm shift is needed so that the developing world starts realizing the importance of rapidly emerging business concepts which could be easily implemented in the developing world. However, it is not possible without bridging the gap between academia and industry especially in the developing world. The close contact between academia and industry would reveal and strengthen the importance of the concept of project management. The project management education is of immense importance in boosting the economic and industrial growth of any country. This phenomenon is even more crucial for the developing nations such as Pakistan. This research study is focused on the in -depth analysis of region wise and city wise comparison of the project management related courses in different academic institutions of Pakistan. The analysis is based on course offerings at 61 private and public sector universities in Pakistan. Only those universities were selected that were recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. A comprehensive online search was conducted in which the web-sites of all 61 universities were visited to identify the courses being offered in project management discipline. The research revealed that the discipline of project management is still in its infancy stage in Pakistan. The Pakistani academic institutions do not offer any degree program in the field of project management which shows that the project management has not been recognized as a distinct discipline by the Pakistani institutions. The research also revealed that only a limited number of institutions offer wide range of project management related courses. The most common project management related courses in Pakistani institutions include production and operations management, project management, software project management, and project evaluation. Majority of the courses were offered as core courses, however the elective course offerings were limited. More courses were offered at the graduate level and the course offerings were limited to the PhD students. It was revealed that there is an immense need to upgrade the project management curricula of Pakistani academic institutions. The research only focused on those universities which were recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Further works can be extended to survey the private sector universities in Pakistan. A comparative study of project management curricula in developed and developing countries would be very beneficial. This is a timely study as the programme of improving project management education is currently underway in Pakistan. This paper sets the foundation for future research focusing on improving project management curricula for business schools in the developing countries. The findings of this study would also be valuable for all academicians and professionals involved in the area of project management in general. This is a unique comparative study of project management curricula offered by academic institutions in Pakistan, conducted for the first time. This study is part of a larger study being carried out for improving project management education in Pakistan. Further the research suggests comparing the course offerings of Pakistani institutions with the project management body of knowledge that is, the 9 knowledge areas and their competencies in order to develop a valuable project management curricula which could be embraced by the academic institutions and professional industry in Pakistan.