AKU faculty wins HEC award

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Dr Sadia Bhutta of AKU’s Institute for Educational Development (IED), has received the Best University Teacher award from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the year 2015 at a ceremony in Islamabad.

The annual award from HEC, Pakistan’s university accreditation and regulatory body, honours teachers in higher education who have made a contribution to society through innovative teaching practices, research and community service. 

An IED alumna from the Class of 1999, Dr Bhutta went on to earn her doctorate in Education with a specific focus on Health Promotion through Schools from Oxford University’s Department of Education before returning to Pakistan to take up a position as the IED’s Head of Research and Policy Studies. 

In this role, she ensures that research at IED is relevant to the country’s education challenges and that studies are designed to inform government policy. Alongside her research responsibilities, she also teaches graduate classes in research methodology, health promotion and science.

Her innovative teaching methods have seen her win IED’s annual student-nominated on five occasions, including a period where she won the prize for four years in a row. 

Speaking about the award from the HEC, Dr Bhutta said: “I’m honoured to receive this national award. I’ve always felt at home in the classroom where my focus has been on engaging students so that they really enjoy learning. IED has helped me understand how people learn, how to use different teaching methods and how important it is to constantly reflect on one’s educational practices.” 

Dr Bhutta started her academic career as a secondary school science teacher in a government school in Balochistan. 

In recent years she has focused on teaching science education, the development and validation of assessment tools as well as leading and conducting large-scale studies in the field of education in general and science and health education in particular.