Govt allocates Rs150m for new SMIU campus

Varsity will construct new campus within Education City by August

KARACHI: From the Rs1 billion approved by the Government of Sindh for development projects in Education City, Rs150 million will be allocated to Sindh Madrassatul Islam University (SMIU), shared vice-chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh.

He pointed out that the federal government has approved a project to construct SMIU's new campus, which will be built in Karachi’s Education City. Shaikh was addressing a media briefing about the varsity’s admission policy.

The VC said that SMIU is going to open an SMIU Model School in Education City, within the premises of SMIU's Malir Campus, in August, 2017. "The state-of-the-art building is ready and we will soon start academic activities there," he promised, adding that the aim is to provide high-quality and modern education to underprivileged children living in rural settlements in Malir. He said for that purpose they have also started vocational training for the people of that area to learn and earn their living.



"Other than five disciplines, two new academic departments - the department of English language and department of development studies - will be added to the varsity soon," he announced. The department of development studies will mainly focus on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor related studies.

The university has collaborated and signed memorandums of understanding with national and international universities and educational organisations in China, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Malaysia. Under these agreements, 21 SMIU students have completed their internship programmes in China and the university will soon be finalising exchange programmes where students can complete a semester at any university in the four countries.

Talking about the enrolment of students at SMIU, he said that enrolment is increasing every year. Last year 1,997 students had applied for admission and only 650 students were successful in gaining admission through the varsity’s transparent admission process. "We want to provide high-quality education with national and international exposure to our students. This is lacking in most public sector universities of the country," Dr Shaikh said. He added that about 25% of SMIU’s students get different scholarships provided by the university in collaboration with different organisations.



Furqan Iftikhar, director of admissions and controller of examinations, briefed the participants about admissions at SMIU. He said that the admissions for fall, 2017 will start from July 2 and continue till July 21, while classes will commence from September 7 for both bachelor’s and master’s programmes. "The doctorate programme in information technology has received a no objection certificate and will be started from next semester," he added.