Expanding wings: QAU opening Dubai campus
Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), one of Pakistan’s top rated higher education institutes, is expanding its wings. The university is going to open a campus in Dubai to cater the 1.2 million Pakistani expatriates living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This was revealed by QAU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Masoom Yasinzai in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune here on Tuesday.
“This would be the first venture abroad for QAU. The project is fully sponsored by a Dubai-based company,” Dr Yasinzai said. QAU was selected for the purpose because of its international ranking, he added.
Established in 1967, the university is rated as one of the top public institutions of higher education in Pakistan. The university was housed initially in rented buildings in Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, and moved to its current campus in the Margalla Hills near the shrine of Bari Imam in October 1971.
A high-level delegation of QAU comprising three deans of the university and headed by the VC, will visit Dubai next Monday to finalise modalities with the sponsor company. In the first phase, the departments of management, international relations, political science, physics and pharmacy would be established at the proposed campus in Dubai Education City, the VC said.
Dr Yasinzai said that through this project the university will get more international recognition and would ultimately help it in improving the education standards, opening a new job market for university graduates and generate more revenue.
The QAU campus will induct lecturers at a salary of Rs150,000 per month and professors will get over Rs300,000, the VC said. “Currently, many overseas Pakistanis children are studying in QAU at its Islamabad campus. The proposed Dubai campus would help them remain with their families while getting quality education,” he said.
QAU is producing around 100 PhDs annually. QAU agreed in principal to give affiliation to 30 colleges in Islamabad; 20 model and 10 federal colleges. A committee comprising of officials from QAU and the newly established Capital Administration Development Department (CADD) is working on the modalities of these affiliations, Yasinzai said.
He said that QAU would train the faculty members of affiliated institutes, enabling them to improve the education standard in accordance with modern requirements. “The expansion of QAU is underway and we have established schools of economics, management, politics and international relations, while work on the School of Medicine, under which a Medical College affiliated with Polyclinic Hospital would also be established at QAU, is on final stages,” the VC said. There would be 50 per cent quota for the provinces and 50 per cent of seats will be given to overseas Pakistanis in the Medical College of QAU.
On expansion, he said, “The QAU faculty forced my predecessors to refrain from expanding QAU for the last 20 years but I did not care about such pressure and we successfully established new departments, a four-year degree programme, and schools in the campus,” the VC said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2011.
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this will help in building a new job market in Dubai for QUAIDIANS, as it will provide the organisations a recognition of QAU among other universities.
I admire my respected vice chancller on his kind attention towards the university. thank you sir. may God bless you.
lolz....He needs to open up his eyes and see the ground realities...when it comes to facilitating the already existing campus he has no funds, most of the departments don't even have enough faculty, and those who have don't have enough rooms to accommodate their needs only few department with strong PR have their own buildings and the rest are making hue n cry but that's of no use. Mr VC has gone insane after the world ranking site mistakenly put qau in the top ranking list and then deleted when the error was mention. Qau was no doubt a top ranking university but the monopoly of certain professors have destroyed it's status. Faculty members are asked to perform good but there's no incentive for them specially the gap between the young faculty and the high profile professors is widening day by day. Mr Vc it would have been better if you decided to send 10 young faculty members abroad for higher education.But why would you do so because you as your predecessors have been hijacked by the bourjgeoisies of the QAU faculty.
yes, our VC is seeming to be mad.......... he can't be able to do so..... Our Nation required practical people not Political people......... Our VC mostly gives a big statements but he has not ability to do so........ He can't be able to solve a single problems of the campus...... Three of them i shall mention here relevant to the students..... 1. VC can't be able to solve the electricity problem in the campus.The research students face much difficulties while doing work in their Labs.One of the Generator facility that is provided to the students in the CL have been taken away from the students these days....... 2. water problem particular in the SUMMER, Even students can't be able to drink a single drop of water 3.Night canteen, the research students are the most senior, they have not the facility of night canteen..... NEXT ON NEXT EPISODE
@Amna: yes you r absolutely right, he is seeming to mad......... because our nation required practical people not political people...... vc promises to the student that he shall try to facilitate what can he do..... but till now he has failed. In every speech VC says i shall do this, i shall do that but fail to do so. last year VC promise that 24 hours electricity shall be provided in the campus through EMBASSIES but can't be able other universities lowest in ranking than Quaid i Azam university have generator system. Now these days CL generator also fail to provide the electricity during load-shading hours........... He tackle the students only through dialogues. he has failed to raise the living standard of hostelise. Even he can't be able to provide 24 hours drinking water to the students in the campus during summer....... next on next episode
It was with great pleasure that I learned of the installation of our new campus in Dubai. I congratulate worthy Vice Chancellor and all the Quaidians on this wonderful and momentous day. To come up with the international community and to compete with the world’s standard universities’ campuses, it took 42 years. Best of luck in advance for the campus management. Sincerely, Waqas Khan Kayani PhD Scholar in Biochemistry, QAU.
Its very good news that QAU i sopening campus abroad, but for that QAU must look at its own status first. There are shortcomings in the faculty. QAU must induct highly qualified faculty, without any political or personal affiliation. I agree with amna. Research labs in lifesciences need upgradation, new ideas should be encouraged and applied. Research activities are not at par with many other national universities, let aside international. Lets hope for the best.
I must appreciate the great vision. this will help to industrialize our research and bilateral terms shall be very helpful to support the idea of entrepreneurship. Best of Luck. Muhammad Nawaz Biochem QAU.
I Must appreciate the idea of Worthy Vice Chancellor. This will help us to build a long term collaboration that may result to bridge the gaps between industry and research. one thing that we lack is the appreciation of novel ideas and we never engulf a change because we are conservative. With all my Best wishes. Muhammad Nawaz Department of Biochemistry QAU.
VC should take interest in electronics department and should start BS program in electronics. BS of electronics should affiliated with PEC (Pakistan Engineering council), to save the students future. Because the student of electronics have no future and they are not eligible to do any job in Pakistan, related to their study, unless their department does not affiliate with Pakistan Engineering Council.
Well done Dr. Yaseenzai, I am sure you can do that, dont what faculty says. These faculty member are use to take leave of five years and do work at different international universities
@Amna... Dont criticize our VC...because VC may ask you to tell him how come the search engines and browser are samething?? :p
VC seems to have gone crazy with his whacky idea of expansion. He dsnt explains how opening a campus here in Dubai will increase the level of education. Secondly not even an unexperienced academician will come up with the idea of affiliating colleges and federal institutions. We will end up being were Punjab University is today. Dont agree when he says faculty members are going to be trained to increase the quality of education. I doubt if he has seen QAU with his open eyes and clear mind. I would request you Sir, to kindly pay a visit to Dept of Life Sciences, we dont have a single electron microscope ( there was reportedly one hidden down in some basement though), We dont have electricity to run our PCR, centrifuges, etc without WAPDA interruption. You might also have a peek inside our grand mini micro departmental library with editions of books since the time I guess you might have graduated. And sure enough Dont forget to look for toilets-- you will be lucky if you find some cause during my stay there, there wasnt any. Central library is best with books and research papers as outdated as Pyramids though the latter is still serving tourism.