Faculty Perspective on the Challenges Faced During Implementation of Integrated Curriculum

Background: Curriculum is a dynamic thing that has evolved over the years to ensure the competency of health care professionals. Due to guidelines issued by international accrediting agencies, University College of Medicine & Dentistry implemented an integrated modular curriculum in 2015 that is coordinated and coherent.  Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore the difficulties that the faculty faced while implementing an integrated curriculum for the undergraduate dental program (BDS) at the University College of Dentistry, The University of Lahore.   Methods: This descriptive exploratory study was conducted from September 2020 till January 2021 at University College of Dentistry, The University of Lahore. Thirty-five faculty members were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed thematically after being transcribed. Results: Six themes emerged from the analysis of interviews. These themes were: working environment, distribution of workload, communication, faculty development and retention, evaluation and leadership. Conclusions: Integrated curriculum may be the need of the hour; however, its implementation comes with a set of challenges, which include a non-conducive working environment, uneven distribution of workload, absence of a sound faculty development and retention program, or absence of adequate resources. These factors may hinder the implementation of the integrated curriculum.

Asymmetric Cryptographic Schemes Based on Noncommutative Structures

Asymmetric cryptography based on groups is mainly concerned with the role of noncommutative groups. The origin of group based cryptography goes back in the 1980s. Since then, numerous cryptographic proposals based on noncommutative groups have been evolved. In this thesis, we consider several noncommutative settings in di erent cryptographic context. This study adds to the cryptographic literature by demonstrating new asymmetric cryptographic schemes. On the one hand, two new public key exchange protocols and two asymmetric cryptosystems are constructed. On the other hand, di erent primitives like suggestion of plat- form, size of di erent parameters, security and e ciency aspects regarding these proposals, are also elaborated.