Hats in the air: GCU’s girls pile on medals

Boys receive the most laurels in co-curricular and sports activities.

LAHORE: Girls outshone boys at the Government College University’s 13th Convocation on Friday, bagging the top positions in 18 out of 30 disciplines in various graduate and post-graduate courses. Boys stood out in co-curricular and sports activities. GCU Pro-Chancellor Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan handed degrees to 1,537 students at the ceremony.

Boys were awarded 17 of the 21 rolls of honour and five of the seven prestigious medals for exceptional performance in co-curricular activities including debates, drama and music. Adnan Farooq was awarded the Shahbaz Sharif Gold Medal; Zilla-i-Huma received the Dr Sadia Karamat Medal; MominYar Khalid was declared the outstanding intermediate student; and Zahid Ali, Khawaja Yasin, Ahmed Chaudhry and Kinza Mumtaz received medals for co-curricular activities.  Sadaf Mehmood won an athletics roll of honour for winning several inter-universities competitions in rifle shooting.

Khan presented doctorate of philosophy degrees to 55 scholars in 10 disciplines.

Vice Chancellor Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman said with the addition of 27 new academic programmes, including computer sciences, applied physics and Islamic studies, GCU’s student strength had risen from 6,200 in 2011 to 11,557 in 2014. He said last year, 34,000 students had applied for admission to various programmes of which only 4,000 students could be admitted. He said the GCU hosted students from China, Japan, Korea and Turkey as well. “As you take great strides in practical life, you must not forget the huge debt that you owe to your alma mater… pay back as much as you can,” he said.

Khan congratulated the faculty for receiving patents three from the United States Patents Office in two years. He said despite its limited financial resources, the GCU had consistently excelled in academics, research and sports. He said the government would try to provide as many funds for the new GCU campus at Kala Shah Kaku as was possible. He said the master plan for the campus was complete and the PC-I for the project had been approved by the Higher Education Commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2015.