Varsity vice chancellor says unsafe to keep female students at rented premises. PHOTO: FILE
The campus will see two new academic blocks and a hostel built.
In an interview to APP, FJWU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Samina Qadir said that the two academic blocks would house eight departments including six for science and technology and two for commerce and law. The hostel, on the other hand, will house 300 girls.
Dr Qadir said that the project, which is estimated to cost around Rs961 million to complete and 18 months build, has selected a consultant while contractors to build the project will be finalised soon. The boundary wall for the 300 acres campus has already been erected.
The FJWU VC said that it was difficult for the varsity to provide safe and secure accommodation to girls in rented buildings.
Dr Qadir explained that the university has been housing over 800 students in 12 rented houses. “Now, we have shifted all the girls residing in hostels located in different areas. At present, there are two on-campus wings of girls hostels which are operational, where over 600 students live,” she said.
A third wing, with a capacity to house 300 girls, has also been completed and is expected to be inaugurated soon, she added.
“We were providing pick and drop facility to the students as well,” she said, adding that the university had three buses and six wagons for ferrying students but most of the students have been shifted into hostels on the campus.
The Chakri Road campus, Dr Qadir said, is located 16 kilometres away from the main campus and would take students around 20 to 25 minutes to commute between the two campuses, adding that roads have also been built while the university would also get two new buses under the project concept-I of the project.
Asked about the water shortage at the campus, the vice chancellor said that a tube well has been installed, noting that the campus would be a residential campus.
New blocks
To a question, she said that a new building for the faculty of education, donated by USAID, has recently been inaugurated.
“We provided the land and they provided everything for the block. It is fully furnished and has labs, multipurpose halls and daycare facility,” she said. Apart from the new academic blocks at the Chakri Road campus, Dr Qadir said a sports block, funded by the HEC, was being built on the main campus.
Space shortage
Dr Qadir highlighted that the varsity offers 60 degrees programmes from undergraduate to PhD level in 48 classrooms. However, the university was facing a shortage of space for its nearly 5,200 students.
Furthermore, the congestion is expected to worsen after the varsity recently launched electronic engineering and physics programmes.
“We are expecting nearly 30,000 students by 2030,” Dr Qadir said, attracting students from across the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2017.
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