Vice-Chancellor Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB), Engr Prof. Dr Athar Mahboob, said that educational development projects worth over Rs12 billion were currently nearing completion. These projects are part of an expansion plan to make the university one of the top 100 institutions in the world, he said.
For this purpose, the University is conducting research and teaching in more than 300 disciplines, he added, addressing a ceremony for laying the foundation stone of the University’s Ahmedpur campus on Sunday.
The VC further said that the number of faculty members has exceeded 1250 and the timely completion of these mega projects, initiated by the University on its own, will be milestones in the educational development of Bahawalpur.
He expressed the hope that the cooperation and support from the federal and provincial governments and knowledge-friendly leadership would bring real change in the region. He said, thousands of students of Bahawalpur Division are already big fans of the knowledge-friendly Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, who have benefited from the thousands of laptops and billions of Rupees of PEEF scholarships provided by him.
The students are also optimistic about the development of the IUB under the present government, the VC expressed, adding that in view of the extraordinary growth and expansion of the University in the last 3 years, the same proportion of infrastructure was required.
These development projects were initiated through various means, including a special development package from the federal government, public-private partnership and the University’s own development budget and resources.
The VC said that the University is also working hard to establish new campuses to provide high-quality education to students at their doorstep. The foundation stone of the Ahmedpur East Campus building was laid for this purpose, he said, adding that progress is being made on the Liaquatpur Campus and similar campuses in other districts and tehsils.
A unique public-private partnership program was launched at IUB, under which development projects worth over Rs. 4 billion will be implemented. These include the construction of teaching buildings, hostels and roads, the VC explained. He added that the University’s transport fleet is currently providing inter-city and intra-city travel facilities to more than 60,000 students and employees. The Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan campuses are also providing transportation facilities to students from surrounding towns and villages.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2022.
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