Calling all students: Habib University opens admissions for fall 2014 semester

The new liberal arts and science varsity is being built in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

KARACHI: Habib University — an upcoming liberal arts and sciences institution — announced the formal opening of admissions for its first batch of students at Marriott Hotel on Wednesday evening at the opening ceremony of the launch event, titled ‘Shaping Futures — A Habib University Expo.’

Educationists, parents and students attended the opening ceremony of the expo to be held on October 26 and 27 at Karachi Expo Centre. The university, which is in its final phase of construction on around seven acres of covered area in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, intends to begin classes for the first batch in the fall of 2014.



Television actor and educationist Rahat Kazmi was one of the guest speakers at the event. He shared his views on the importance of acquiring higher education for nation-building. Kazmi said that the nation was sufferings due to the lack of the knowledge. “Knowledge should be our beloved and its loss should leave us restless, like Faiz Ahmed Faiz is reported to have once said that true poetry emerges from the loss of a beloved.”

Sharing his thoughts behind the project, Habib University president Wasif Rizvi said maximising higher education opportunities for the youth is the need of the hour in a country where less than five per cent of the population has access to higher education. In this context, he said, Habib University is a one-of-its-kind institution focusing on liberal arts and science education in Pakistan and the expo will allow the visitors to personally experience it.

Asim Saeed, a senior manager for student recruitment at the varsity, explained that the central purpose of the event was to allow visitors to develop a deeper understanding of the institution by providing them an interactive tour of the academic and student life that the institution has to offer. “The expo will inform them about cutting-edge ideas while explaining the importance of liberal arts education along with sciences,” added Saeed.

Science and technology permeates through every aspect of our lives today, said the institution’s science and engineering dean, Dr Shoaib Zaidi, adding that the university aims to produce engineers and computer science graduates who will be well-versed in anthropology, sociology and humanities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2013.