ZU awards degrees to 582 graduates

PhD degrees conferred upon three students, MPhil degrees on 26 students

KARACHI:

The Ziauddin University (ZU) awarded degrees to 582 graduating students at its 18th convocation on Thursday.

At the convocation ceremony, held at a park adjacent to the varsity, degrees were conferred upon students from the disciplines of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, pharmacy, dentistry, audiology, speech language therapy, biomedical engineering, medical technology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing communication and media sciences.

As many as three graduates were awarded PhD degrees and 26 MPhil degrees.

Speaking on the occasion, ZU chancellor and chief guest Dr Asim Hussain congratulated the graduating students.

“This day marks a transitional moment of your life. The hard work that you have put imbues me with a sense of achievement,” he said.

He praised the efforts of students, their parents and the ZU faculty for training students at par with international standards.

Dr Asim said, “I pray and hope the graduates of today will serve the nation in the best possible way, which ultimately will be a step in the right direction to fulfill the dreams and vision of our forefathers and Sir Dr Ziauddin Ahmad.” He added, “I have no hesitation in saying that our generation has collectively failed to achieve the desired goals for the emancipation of people of this country. It is up to you to pick up from here and do what needs to be done. “

Dr Asim continued, “As a lot of efforts are needed to become a viable and responsible state on the world canvas.”

He called for the devolving of power to the people in the wake of rising population and to address the pressing issue of food and water scarcity and move towards digitisation.

In this regard, Dr Asim told the audience that ZU was adding cutting edge tools and digital technology in education at all of its faculties.

“A recent example is the addition of the Anatomage the 3D dissection system for our anatomy department. This is the beginning and in the next couple of years, we will see equipment which is not available in any other university in Pakistan.”

He added, “I can proudly say that we are in the process of installing a cyclotron, which will produce a broad array of diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes not available elsewhere in Pakistan. We are putting up a genetic and molecular lab with next generation sequencing instruments for both diagnostic and research purposes. These two things will be the first in any Pakistani University.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2021.