Pioneering institution: Lahore College varsity marks founder’s day

University was originally established as a college in 1922

LAHORE: The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) has been empowering generations of women through higher education, Population Welfare Minister Zakia Shahnawaz said on Thursday.

The minister made the remarks on while addressing an event organised to mark the 94th founder’s day of the varsity. Shahnawaz, the chief guest on the occasion, said the varsity had been engaged in opening the doors of employability and entrepreneurship for nearly a century. “I take pride in being an alumna of this progressive university,” she said.

LCWU Vice Chancellor Uzma Qureshi said the varsity, with an enrolment of over 10,000 students, was a prestigious institution that had originally been established as a college on May 5, 1922. She said that LCWU was committed to promoting modern ideas and critical thought across major disciplines including information technology, mass communication, environmental sciences and pharmacy. Qureshi said academic programmes had been strengthened and developed with the generous help of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Earlier, she said, only the physics and botany departments had been offering master’s degrees.

Qureshi said the varsity had been devising academic programmes in line with contemporary needs. She said great emphasis was being given to academic excellence while focusing on ensuring financial sustainability and women empowerment. Qureshi said the university had been inculcating values that emphasised integrity and tolerance. This, she said, was necessary to make the world a better place.

Former LCWU vice chancellor Bushra Mateen said that the university had been established in May, 1922 as an intermediate residential college. She said it was originally housed in a building on Hall Road and had a total strength of 60 students and 13 faculty. By 1950, Mateen said, the number of students had increased to 600 and it came to occupy its present premises on Jail Road. She said the LCWU had witnessed tremendous growth since its inception.

The former LCWU vice chancellor said the college had gotten affiliated with the University of the Punjab following its founding. Over the following two years, she said, the institution had introduced graduate programmes across 14 subjects. “The LCWU has the distinction of being a pioneering women’s degree college since 1940.  Postgraduate classes in English were initiated in 1940 and honours classes in five subjects were introduced in 1949,” Mateen said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.