Sheringal university carves out its own success

Several steps have been taken to engage locals through outreach programmes

ISLAMABAD: The story of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU) in Sheringal is a mix of success, passion to transform a backward area into a centre of learning, promote community development and clear the path for long-term development of the area.

Sheringal is a union council of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Upper Dir district. The university is located in a narrow valley of Dir Kohistan, at a distance of about 35km from Dir city. Upper Dir borders Afghanistan to the west, Chitral and Swat districts to the north and east, and Lower Dir district to the south.



Though the university was formally inaugurated in 2009, it is still struggling on many fronts -- especially local patronage which could speed up educational activities in a backward area whose people are both poor and conservative.

However, the way the university faculty and management have paved their way to make inroads in the area through a number of initiatives, engaging the community, is indeed a story untold.

The university is sprawled over an area of 408 kanal. There are 16 departments that offer 24 programmes at the main campus with 1,900 students, 90 % are non-local residents and belong to surrounding areas like Bannu, Kohat and Swat. “The area is conservative and higher studies have yet to catch the attention of these people,” said the head of the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) Muhammad Kamal Khan.

According to him and other faculty members, it was and still is a real challenge to create an inclusive environment, because at first locals were reluctant to interact with them.

The faculty has started outreach programmes and activities to encourage participation of locals and their elders in it. The best one so far is the University Public School for boys and girls. Since there are no school in the area, people of the area started enrolling their children in the school which was also part of the strategy to get students to enrol in the university later on.

The university has initiated other outreach programmes that include a livestock research centre with farming and poultry facilities under the animal sciences department.



Milk and eggs are sold to locals who can fetch clean drinking water from a filtration plant installed inside the university.

In another step to engage locals, a programme was held on the world environment and mountain day in which locals were invited and informed about the benefits of protecting the natural habitat.

The area lacks a health facility and the university management along with the provincial health department have established a Basic Health Unit.

These efforts have watered down some of the hostility that people had for the university. That is perhaps why its management has planned to go ahead with more mega projects that include building of a new faculty block, hostels for boys and girls and above all a water turbine project to generate electricity for Sheringal.

Since the area borders Chitral, a sub-campus has been constructed there, with the majority being females, which is in contrast to the main campus. It also managed to secure eight positions in a conference held by the HEC, outlining their planning for the university during the next five years.

Most members of the faculty are young while the results are encouraging and according to registrar Badshah Khan. “There is still a long way to go but at least they are on the right path,” says Khan.

The university has improved from the score of 24.9 in 2012-13 to 2014-15 to 77 and has been trying to get to ‘Category X’ as per the HEC criteria. The university currently has 30 faculty members who hold PhDs while around 15 scholars are abroad on the HEC’s faculty development programme.

Tuition fee and other charges for students are around Rs6,000 while students are also given financial assistance. The names of students are finalised by a body drawn from among local community members in the interest of transparency and fairness.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.