FUUAST: Varsity status for capital campus sought

Says move would help improve quality of education at the institution.


Our Correspondent January 28, 2013
Says move would help improve quality of education at the institution.

ISLAMABAD: The head of the Federal Urdu University in Islamabad wants university status for his campus, to improve overall performance.

Dr Zahid Saleem, in-charge of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST), said on Sunday that the university status will ensure better research and more education departments in the campus.

The university has three campuses, one in Islamabad and the other two in Karachi.

“The campuses in Karachi are often closed due to law and order problems in the city, causing immense problems for the Islamabad campus as well,” he said.

“Besides, it is very difficult for one vice-chancellor to look after all administrative affairs of three campuses, therefore I am hopeful the government will consider our genuine demand,” he said.



He said the university has risen rapidly in the overall ranking of national universities, moving from 13th to sixth position, “credit for which goes to the teachers”.

Dr Saleem, who is also a professor in the FUUAST Department of Electrical Engineering, said the university purchased 80 kanals for the Islamabad campus from its own resources.

“Apart from the special HEC grant of Rs8 million, I hope the government will allocate fund in the coming budget for construction,” he said.

The campus in-charge said new programmes such as mass communications, sociology, telecommunications, power engineering, biotechnology and environmental sciences will soon be added.

He said most subjects are being taught in Urdu and over 100 scientific subjects have been translated from English to Urdu since FUUAST’s establishment in 2002.

“Teaching science subjects in Urdu will help improve the literacy rate as it will attract lower-income students to get an education,” Dr Saleem said.

However, he said some courses are still in English, as funds are required to translate course material into Urdu.

He said 3,600 students are enrolled at the Islamabad campus, while enrolment at the Karachi campuses has risen to 10,000.

He also complained that a promise made by former federal minister for science and technology Dr Attaur Rahman to provide 1,000 kanals and Rs1 billion in funds was yet to be fulfilled.

Dr Saleem said the Islamabad campus is still confronted with challenges, which he said will take time to overcome, provided that the campus gets its due share in the annual budget.

“The campus has signed various agreements with universities in the United States, England, Malaysia and China,” he said, adding that the engineering department is registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council.

He said over 30 PhD teachers have been hired in different disciplines as “it is my great desire to hire highly-qualified and experienced teachers to prepare our students for success.”

He said if he is given the authority, he will make all-out efforts to create avenues to generate funds from the university’s own resources to lower the burden on the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2013.

 

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