Lahore School of Accountancy and Finance Dean Muhammad Iqbal has urged upon the country's political leadership to allocate at least four percent of gross domestic products (GDP) to education sector. He regretted, "We are currently spending less than two percent of our GDP on education while developed nations are spending more than five percent of their GDP on education."
While talking to Business Recorder, Iqbal said that education was the most powerful weapon for any nation in the present-day world and to attain supremacy in the comity of nations, "we must equip our younger generation with the knowledge of modern science and technology."
He said School of Accountancy & Finance of the University of Lahore had been established to offer graduate and postgraduate programmes in Commerce and Finance. "These programmes are designed to provide the students with skills and knowledge in the applied and practical aspects of accounting, commerce and finance. The programmes are meant to supply competent Accountancy and Finance staff Industry Commerce and Accounting profession."
Iqbal said the standard of Accountancy and Commerce education in the country had not kept pace with the emerging new techniques of business management and as such our traditional Commerce degree holders and postgraduates had failed to cop up with the requirements increasingly competitive, technological interdependent and rapidly changing business environment.
He also said the goal of University of Lahore was to develop the human resources with desired competency in applied accounting and finance, which was essential for the effective business and organisational development in the country. To enable students to peruse professional accountancy carrier, programmes provide bridging recognised professional accounting qualification such as chartered accountancy in Pakistan and ACCA (UK) and prepare the students to take simultaneously exams of these professional bodies.
He further said that School of Accountancy & Finance was committed to impart quality education. "Its faculty is experienced and committed. The atmosphere is very conducive and exciting due to the involvement of participative learning approach in study programmes. We have committed ourselves to new experiment in our curriculum, designed the syllabus to provide the students with skills and knowledge in the applied and practical aspects of Accounting, Commerce and Finance. The recommended study material is specific and allows the students and tutors to effectively cover the entire syllabus within in the allocated time without mounting unnecessary pressure on the students.
The programmes also help the students to specialised in the discipline of professional Accounting, Management, Marketing and many more and enable them to understand application of these subjects to various areas of Business Management. "Our mission is to develop competent accountants and business managers to measure up to global professional standards. The challenges of new millennium are great; we are committed to do every thing possible to develop our human resources to meet these challenges in benefiting manners."