The Institute of Business Administration, or IBA, is a university and a business school in Karachi, Pakistan. According to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, IBA is one of the best business and IT institutes in Pakistan. ^[2] The IBA was set up in 1955 in collaboration with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is the first business school in South Asia set up on the US MBA model. The school has alumni who are leaders in industry, government, and academia in Pakistan and abroad. It started as a business school within the University of Karachi. IBA’s status was elevated to become an independent, degree-granting institution in Pakistan in 1994 when it received a charter from the Sindh government.

The United States (US) government and the IBA are to establish a centre for entrepreneurship at the school to support new businesses, help create Pakistani enterprises and link students with private sector venture capitalists.^[3] The centre is being funded with an initial investment of Rs.42.5 million ($500,000,) by US Aid. Babson College is assisting with that effort. Babson, which according to the paper has a strong reputation in the field of entrepreneurship, is helping IBA design an entrepreneurship curriculum, train its faculty and help it institute extracurricular activities such as business plan competitions and student clubs.

Institute of Business Administration, Karachi IBA

IBA

History

The IBA was established in 1955 by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The United States Aid for International Development (USAID) sponsored the program and approached the Wharton faculty to establish a business school in Karachi, Pakistan in order to meet the demand for business managers in the port city. IBA, Karachi, is the first ever business school sponsored by the Wharton School.

The IBA offered post-graduate programs only for day scholars. In 1957, an evening program in graduate studies was started to cater to the needs of working executives and managers who were interested in furthering their careers through part-time business studies. In 1982, a three-year BBA (Honors) Program was introduced; this was upgraded to a four-year program by the Musharraf administration. The institute’s graduate program offering includes executive MBA for banking and financial services professionals, corporate managers, and public sector executives. These programs require work experience in the industry, resulting in a high average age of the class – upwards of 30 years. Till 1994, the University of Karachi awarded degrees to the graduates. In that year the Sindh Assembly elevated the institute’s status to that of a degree-awarding institution.

The Center for Computer Studies (now referred to as the Faculty of Computer Science) was established in 1983 with the collaboration of IBM, Pakistan. It offered a diploma in systems analysis. It now offers BBA (MIS), MBA (MIS) and BS (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology), MS (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology), and Ph.D programs. In addition, a Ph.D program in MIS/Computer Science and Engineering/ICT was launched in August 2005. The Ph.D degree has been expanded to include Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Cryptography, Numerical Analysis and Numerical Computing. The Center for Computer Studies is ranked number 1, according to the Higher Education Commission rankings.^[4]

When established the university had its only campus, called University campus, at Karachi University. Later another campus, known as City campus, was established for evening studies. City campus now holds both morning and evening classes.

In 2006 the Institute of Business Administration was granted 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land by the Sindh Government for the development of an Education City in Karachi.^[5] The Tabba foundation in Pakistan donated the institute Rs. 120 million for upgradate of facilities on the IBA campuses.^[6]

Dr Ishrat Husain, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), is the Dean and Director Institute of Business Administration.^[7]

A Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree is aimed at understanding organisational systems and structures and within those structures an MBA imparts problem-solving and leadership skills. It is therefore a useful degree for a career in technical or general management.

The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) was a pioneer in the field of management education when it began its MBA programme in 1955 at Karachi in collaboration with the Wharton School of Business. MBA degrees were highly valued and admission to the IBA, and later also in LUMS, was highly competitive.

IBA is a contributing member ofhe Global Business School Network, and is participating in the Karachi Education Initiative.

Faculty

IBA has 80 full time and 85 part time and visiting faculty members teaching courses in Management, Marketing, HR, Strategy, Finance, Economics, Quantitative Methods, Organizational Behavior, Computer Sciences, Ethics, Social Sciences, Chinese, Arabic. The faculty is drawn from two streams i.e. academic and practical. The academic faculty mostly consists of those holding Doctorate or Master’s degrees from university, while the practical faculty draws upon the large reservoirs of top leaders, chief executives, and or managers in the corporate sector.

Faculty members engage in research and writing papers, advising companies and organizing training courses for the industry, public sector etc. Teaching tools include lectures, class participation, role-playing, business games, class presentations, case studies, research reports, and company visits.

Affiliation

The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi is a member of the European Foundation for Management Development.^[8]

The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi is also a CFA University Partner, and was the first university in Pakistan to be granted that status by the CFA Institute.^[9][10]

Notable alumni

This is a partial list of notable alumni of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

• Shaukat Aziz, former Prime Minister of Pakistan
• Mr Asad Umar, CEO Engro Corporation
• Tariq Kirmani, former CEO Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan State Oil
• Farhan Aftab, part of senior management at Eden Housing Limited and Library Secretary of Business Administration Society of Evening Students (BASES) at IBA Karachi from 1990 to 1993.

IBA Students Council (ISC)

In 2009 a new students council System was put in place One student body was put in place for both campuses at opposed to program-based student councils (previously BASC, ESF and BITS). The main governing student body structure includes elected Vice President, Treasurer, General Secretary, two Campus coordinators and three Executive Council Members.

Clubs and societies structure

Each club and society has a Manager, Treasurer, two Campus coordinators, and three Executive Council Members. Beside the students governing body, a faculty member as its Patron is assigned, who acts as an advisor. The difference between a club and society is that for clubs only a current MBA student can qualify to run for the election of a Manager (beside meeting a minimum GPA requirement), whereas a society can have a manager from any program (MBA, BBA, BS, MS).

IBA Clubs

• Leadership Club
• Entrepreneurship Club
• Human Resource Club
• Marketing Club
• Finance Club
• Economics Club
• Social Sciences Club

IBA Societies

• Iqra Society
• Community Welfare society
• Music Society
• Dramatics Society
• Literary Society
• Sports Society
• Web Society
• Info System Society
• Public Speaking Society
• Arts Society
• Media and Publication Society
• Go Green Society
• Photography Society
• Adventure Society
• Almuni Society
• Placement Society