‘Punjab University now 4th in the country’

Dr Kamran holds seminar for reporters to update them on the university’s achievements over the last two years.

LAHORE: “The Punjab University (PU) is fourth in the  Higher Education Commission 2011 ranking of the country’s top universities, improving from the 6th position in 2009,” Dr Mujahid Kamran, the PU vice chancellor said on Sunday.

Dr Kamran was addressing a seminar for reporters to update them on the university’s achievements over the last two years. The VC said that 352 research papers were published in the impact factor journals in the year 2010. He said that the aim of the seminar was to review the university’s academic standards and to propagate its future plans.

He said that the university faculty would be focusing on publishing new books on various disciplines this year.

Dr Kamran said that more than 10 books, authored by PU faculty, had been published in foreign countries in 2010.

This, he said, was a proof of the university and faculty’s academic strengths. The university has the potential to do even better, he said. “If the present administration continues for the next three to four years, I am certain the university will earn a place among the top 200 universities in the world,” he said.  “Presently, 80 varsity teachers are working on PhD degrees in foreign universities. Forty of them will be returning to rejoin the university later this year,” he told the reporters.

The Punjab University had allocated Rs70 million in 2010 for research.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2011.