GCU endowment gets Rs50m grant from CM

Vice chancellor says money will be spent on scholarships, development.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government released Rs50 million for Government College University’s (GCU) Endowment Fund Trust on Tuesday on the order of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had pledged the donation to the college at the Old Ravians Union oath-taking ceremony earlier this year.

At a ceremony to mark the occasion, GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Ikramul Haq said that the money would be spent on scholarships for deserving students and development projects at the university.

He said that universities all over the world ran endowment funds funded by their old students and the corporate sector. “Harvard University has an endowment fund of more than $35.474 billion, Yale has $20.225 billion and a small university like the University of Virginia has an endowment fund of around $5 billion,” Prof Haq said.

However, GCU is the only public university in Pakistan which has an active endowment fund giving scholarships to deserving students, he said. Around 2,500 students apply for financial aid at the university every year and the Endowment Fund Trust was established to help them, he said. Last year, GCU gave away scholarships worth Rs11 million. He thanked the chief minister for his generosity.

Prof Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt, secretary of the fund’s executive committee, presented the Rs50 million cheque to the vice chancellor at the ceremony at the GCU Syndicate Committee Room. Prof Butt said that the donation had swelled the fund to Rs112 million. GCU Treasurer Muhammad Shafiq Mughal was also present.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2011.